The Schmidt Lithograph Company : oral history transcripts / and related material, 1967-1969

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University of California Berkley

University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley

Regional Oral History Office

Max Schmidt Jr.
Herman Diedrichs
Bernhard Schmidt

THE SCHMIDT LITHOGRAPH COMPANY
VOLUME I

Interviews Conducted by
Ruth Teiser

Berkeley
1968

Max Scheldt

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Berkeley .

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should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office,
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INTRODUCTION

For well over a half century, the Schmidt Lithograph

Company of San Francisco was one of the great "label houses"
of the United States. It was established by the German im
migrant, Max Schmidt, who gave the date of Its founding as
1873, when he apparently had a partner, Frederick Buehler,
briefly. The Log of a Cabin Boy, a pamphlet based upon
Max Schmidt s recollections and published by the company 1n
1922, gives much accurate information on the history of the
enterprise, in spite of its joking style. A 1925 pamphlet,
Dedication Ceremonies, Schmidt Lithograph Company Plant
Number Two, contains an excellent description of the organ
ization as it was in that year.

Shortly after the company was established, Max Schmidt
was joined in it by his brother, Richard Schmidt. For many
years they and the younger members of the family held the
major positions of leadership in the firm. Not until 1964
was a president drawn from outside the family. In 1966 the
Schmidt Lithograph Company was merged with Stecher-Traung
Lithograph Company of San Francisco and Rochester, New York,
to become the Stecher-Traung-Schmidt Corporation.

Six Schmidt Lithograph Company men have given inter
views. In this first of two volumes are the recollections of
three men of the generation following Max and Richard Schmidt

In later years he often gave the date as 1872.

11

They are Max Schmidt Jr., nephew of Max Schmidt; Bernhard H.
Schmidt, son of Richard Schmidt; and Herman Dledrlchs, an
employee for fifty years. In the second volume are the
recollections of three men of the generation succeeding them:
Ernest Wuthmann, Jr., a grandson of Max Schmidt; Lorenz
Schmidt, a grandson of Richard Schmidt; and Stewart Morris,
a company executive married to the daughter of Max Schmidt Jr.
Their interviews concern in large part the company s recent
years .

Much related material has been deposited in the Bancroft
Library by members of the Schmidt family. It includes
forty-nine albums of samples of the company s work, clippings,
and correspondence since 1906; a file of letters written to
Max Schmidt following publication of The Log of a Cabin Boy,
and a collection of photographs.

Nearly ninety of the photographs are views of the com
pany s plant and offices, in two original albums. One Is
dated 1903 (when during a brief merger the firm was operating
under the name Mutual Label and Lithograph Company), the
other 1909, following rebuilding of the plant destroyed in
April, 1906. They form a remarkable record of a large litho
graphing and printing establishment at a transitional stage
of the industry: as lithographic stones were giving way to
metal plates, as multi-color presses were beginning to come
into use, but before direct lithography had given way to
offset and before hand transfer had given way to photographic
processes .

111

Adding immeasurably to the value and Interest of the
photographs are the identifications, explanations, and com
ments on them by the three men whose interviews are contained
in this volume. Together they form a valuable and unique
record. The index to this volume is by extension a partial
Index to the photographs.

Ruth Teiser
Interviewer

1 September 1968
Regional Oral History Office
Room 486 The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California

Books and Printing in the San Francisco Bay Area
Interviews Completed by September, 1968

Brother Antoninus Brother Antoninus: Poet, Printer, and

Re ligious

Edwin Grabhorn Recollections of the Grabhorn Press

Jane Grabhorn The Colt Press

Robert Grabhorn Fine Printing and the Grabhorn Press

Warren R. Howell Two San Francisco Bookmen

Haywood Hunt Recollections of San Francisco Printers

Lawton Kennedy A Life in Printing

Oscar Lewis Literary San Francisco

Bernhard Schmidt, Herman Diedrlchs, Max Schmidt, Jr. The
Schmidt Lithograph Company, Vol. I

Albert Sperisen San Francisco Printers, 1925-65

1v

CONTENTS

MAX SCHMIDT JR.

Recollections of Early Years 2

Mutual Label and Lithograph Company, 1903

Photograph Album 10

HERMAN DIEDRICHS

Early Career at Schmidt Lithograph Company 21

1906 to 1908 28

Company People and Operations 36

Mutual Label and Lithograph Company, 1903

Photograph Album 56

Schmidt Lithograph Company, 1909 Photograph

Album 86

BERNHARD H. SCHMIDT

The Family and the Company 141

Lithography and Letterpress Techniques 150

The Company and Its People 158

Mutual Label and Lithograph Company, 1903

Photograph Album 165

Schmidt Lithograph Company, 1909 Photograph

Album 174

Miscellaneous Photographs 200

Max Schmidt Jr. was born in Germany in 1882 and was
brought to this country in 1898 by his uncle, Max Schmidt,
to live in his household. His name was originally Max Henry
Schmidt, but he was generally known as Max Schmidt Jr. or
"German Max." The latter distinguished him from his cousin
Max A. Schmidt who was known as "Electrical Max" because he
was for some years in charge of the Schmidt Lithograph
Company s electrical and mechanical maintenance.

Like many members of the family, Max Schmidt Jr.
spent almost his entire working life at Schmidt Lithograph
Company, beginning before the turn of the century. For many
years he had charge of what was known as the "factory
office." He retired in 1955.

The following interview was given on two occasions.
The first was in the San Francisco apartment of Mr. Max
Schmidt Jr. on April 27, 1967, the second at the Atherton home
of his daughter, Mrs. Stewart Norris, and Mr. Norris on
May 5, 1967. Mr. Schmidt had not been well; his memory was
at times poor, at times good. He and Mr. and Mrs. Norris
read the transcript of his interview. They made few changes
but filled in an occasional phrase and added a few names.
The interviewer did some editing for continuity.

MAX SCHMIDT JR.

Recollections of Early Years

Teiser: When were you born?

M.S. Jr. I was born June 9, 1882. Opposite Cologne across
the river. Deutz. It s now a part of Cologne.

I ve been fortunate all my life. I was presi
dent of the California Golf Club. I didn t have
a lot of money, but I knew a good many people. I
was president of the Printing House Craftsmen.
I said, "I m not a printing house craftsman. I m
a lithographer." But they made me president all
the same. I think it was due a good deal to
Haywood Hunt.

Teiser: How long were you president of the Printing House
Craftsmen?

M.S. Jr. I think two terms. Haywood Hunt would remember.

Teiser: How old were you when you came to San Francisco?

M.S. Jr. Fifteen or sixteen. I came in 1898.

Teiser: You d already gone to school.

M.S. Jr. Oh, yes. I went to the Realgymnasium. I learned
French. Dr. Uthoff taught us. I had six or eight
years of Latin. I spoke French.

My mother had eight children. My father died

San Francisco chapter, International Club of
Printing House Craftsmen.

**

See also 1967 Haywood Hunt interview this series,

Recollections of San Francisco Printers.

3

M.S. Jr. when the youngest one was born. Six boys and two

girls. Brother Kurt was the only one who made much
money. He later came out here with $10,000 and
invested it in the Schmidt Lithograph Company.

Teiser: You were the only one who came to this country as
a young man?

M.S. Jr. Yes. Shipped over.

My father had charge of the railroad shops in
Osnabruck. I saw them as a youngster. They were
big. I said to Dad, "What are you?" He said,
"I m a graduate of the University of Charlottenburg. "
I didn t even graduate from the Real gymnasi urn
before I came out here, because I saw that Mother
had a lot of trouble. We had enough to eat, a
big garden, all the fruit we wanted and so forth.
Each boy did all the physical jobs. My oldest brother
I disliked very much. My brother Kurt, I admired
him.

Uncle Schmidt paid my passage out here. It was
third class. But I paid him back. Gradually. It
took years. On my first trip back to Europe, I
think it was in 1906, I found out--my mother told
me that I was shipped out here because Aunt
Schmidt--Tante Schmidt lost four children in one

*Max Schmidt

4

*
M.S. Jr. week. I was to take the place. I never asked

to come, but I ve never regretted it. I ve made
three or four trips to Europe and every time I come
back I whistle, "California Here I Come."

I always worked for what I got. Some of the
boys swiped things, but I never did. I bought
every share of stock in the company that I got.
I made everything I got except the $1500 Uncle
Schmidt left me.

Teiser: You must have worked hard to learn your trade.

M.S. Jr. Yes, I had to work hard. I was a bum artist.

[Laughter] I learned transfer work at the H. S.
Crocker Co. Uncle Schmidt bought out H. S. Crocker.
They had a small department, lithograph department.
Old man Pohlmann [Theodore Pohlmann?] --he s been
dead now for years he was the manager of that
department. I liked Old Man Pohlmann. He was a
capable man. He was a good lithographer, but he
drank too much. It wasn t the banker Crocker who
owned the company. I think Schmidt saved it at
some point. They [Crocker] practically lost it.

"Dad told me just recently that his mother said he
was to be adopted by Max Schmidt." Barbara Schmidt
Norris .

5

M.S. Jr. Gus Soderwall, a Swedehe was the best platemaker.

A darned good man. He taught me the transfer work.

He was my boss for several years. He went with

Mutual* He knew the business from A to Z.

They imported him from Europe.
Teiser: You were a transfer man?
M.S. Jr. A transfer man. I ran the press too. There was a

big strike and they taught me to run a press.
Teiser: A transfer man worked with plates?
M.S. Jr. Making plates, yes. First with stone. Then the

offset presses came in and the deep printing [deep

etch plates] because they ran so much faster.
Teiser: So then you went to plates?
M.S. Jr. Yes. I learned on stone first. The stone came

from Bavaria, Germany.

I didnt get much money. I saved my money.

Mrs.

Norris: I remember you told me about where you first went

to work, on Leidesdorff Street.
M.S. Jr. Oh, yes, for Oscar Schneider. He was an artist.

Every time he wanted a stone or anything like that,
he d say, "You go over to Schmidt Lithograph and
ask them for a stone." I says, "Supposing they
don t?" And he d say, "Oh, they won t refuse it."
[Laughter]

*Mutual Label and Lithograph Company

6

Teiser: Did you get them?

M.S. Jr. Yes, I did.

Teiser: You worked there before you went to Crocker?

M.S. Jr. Yes. Schneider made his wife pick flowers and sell
them on Sundays. He stood at the station in Mill
Valley and sold flowers. He was a clever artist.
He did work for Schmidt Lithograph Company.

When I worked at H. S. Crocker Company, they
had stone presses. I didn t have any training,
but they were all nice to me because I was the
boss s nephew.

Teiser: H. S. Crocker and Schmidt Lithograph Company merged
to create Mutual Label and Lithograph?

M.S. Jr. One more--Di ckman-Jones Company. Dickman was an
artist. The Bohemian Club was lucky to have him
[as a member]. Uncle Schmidt gave me all the train
ing he could. Uncle Schmidt himself was a good
engraver. Schmidt took over Di ckman-Jones because
it lost too much money. The Crocker Bank backed
Schmidt in that. My brother Kurt came out here.
Uncle Schmidt needed money. Kurt came out here
with $10,000 and bought $10,000 worth of stock and
paid cash for it.

Teiser: In Schmidt Lithograph Company?

M.S. Jr. No, Mutual. The next year he came back and sold 1t.

7
M.S. Jr. He worked for Schiller in Osnabruck. Uncle

Schmidt bought it back. I went to work in the
transfer department, then in the factory. I
ran the [Schmidt Lithograph Co.] factory office.
Cousin Carl [Schmidt] was sales manager. Carl
helped a lot. Cousin Ben [Bernhard H. Schmidt]
ran part of the factory. He and I are still
good friends. We have lunch once a week, not
because of Schmidt but because we re retired

people.

*
Dick [Richard Schmidt Jr.] was a good man. I

enjoyed him. He helped Schmidt [Lithograph Company]
more than anyone. Mr. [Max Sr.] Schmidt s
brother-in-law, Mr. [Carl] Rahsskopff was a scien
tific instrument maker. He didn t make enough
money in his business, so Tante Schmidt said [to
Max Schmidt Sr.], "He doesn t come home bringing
any money." Uncle Schmidt said, "I ll see that he
gets money." He was a good mechanic.

Teiser: He was given work at Schmidt Lithograph Company?

M.S. Jr. Yes. He was a hard worker. He made improvements
in presses. He could do anything. But then he
became too old and he couldn t work any more.
Uncle Schmidt didn t pay him much, but he saved his
life though. He was married to Tante Schmidt s
sister. She was a good cook but that s about all,
Tante Schmidt.

Cn n f Mav

8

Teiser: You lived in their home?

M.S. Jr. Yes, but I paid. I ve still got the receipts to
show that I paid Uncle Schmidt everything back.

Teiser: You paid board and room?

M.S. Jr. Yes. I m proud that I paid.

Teiser: Was it a good home for a young man?

M.S. Jr. A good home, yes. When Uncle Schmidt died, I got

fifteen hundred dollars. I asked somebody, "What d
I do for that?" He said, "Your grandfather helped
Uncle Schmidt. He helped him out."

I joined the Signal Corps, Company B, in the
Spanish-American War. Edgar Lighter and Sullivan
got me in. But I never went to war. But I m
considered a veteran. When war was declared, the
doctor told me I was not to go.

Teiser: What did you do here in San Francisco as a young
man?

M.S. Jr. Well, I played baseball. I played every Saturday

morning at Golden Gate Park (called Recreation Park)
I was a member of a baseball team. And Sunday
mornings I went over to Oakland, had my lunch--paid
for my own lunch--and came back on the boat. We
played football at Eighth and Harrison, and I
enjoyed the game. Uncle Schmidt helped us in that.
Cousin Ben and Cousin Dick were good football
players. Ben played at Lick School. Cousin Dick

9

M.S. Jr. played at San Rafael High School. We played
football at Sixteenth and Folsom.

The Navy players came and they saw us and
invited us over to play them in Vallejo. I ll
never forget that. We were really proud of that.
It rained to beat the band, and we didn t even
have shoes. Uncle Schmidt paid for the boat that
took us there. It was very nice of him. By that
time he had money. They took us all there by
boat to Vallejo, and they beat the tar out of us.
It was due to the rain. Some captain said, "Don t
worry about that. Our players are worse than you
are." There were 2600 spectators.

Teiser: Did Uncle Schmidt buy you uniforms?

M.S. Jr. Oh, no, we paid for our own.

Teiser: You speak without any German accent. Did you go
to school when you came here?

M.S. Jr. Night school, to learn bookkeeping. [Laughter]

Then I became a lithographer. I had two years of
English in school before I came here. English and
French .

Teiser: You must have been a good athlete.

M.S. Jr. Husky, yes. Then afterwards I became a good boxer.
I learned at the Olympic Club.

Teiser: Did you have to defend yourself? Were the men
who worked with you rough?

10

M.S. Jr. No, they were nice. They were nice to me because I
was the boss s nephew maybe [laughter]. No, they
were nice. They were unionizing then, but I never
had to join. Gus Soderwall helped me. He was a
real union man. Gus fixed it up, and I was never
troubled. I was square with them.

Teiser: Was the lithographers union as strong then as it
became later?

M.S. Jr. It was stronger when I first came here.

Mutual Label & Litho. Co.
1903 Photograph Album

Teiser: Do you recognize the people in this picture on

page 2 [of the album titled "Mutual Label & Litho.
Co., San Francisco, Cal . Christmas 1903"]?

M.S. Jr. Uncle [Carl] Rahsskopff, scientific instrument
maker, is the one with the cap [left]. He was
Uncle Schmidt s brother-in-law. Next to him is
Richard Schmidt [Sr.] He was a graduate of the
University of Charlottenburg. Jones, of Dickman-
Jones; he was backed by Slosst He used to be an
engraver for Uncle Schmidt. Henry Wehr; he was
raised here. Uncle Schmidt. That s the private
office of Schmidt Lithograph Company, Second and
Bryant. Rahsskopff was a very good man, but he
didn t know how to handle money.

*George Jones. Louis Sloss, Jr. had been secretary
of Dickman-Jones .

Left to right: Carl Rahsskopff, Richard Schnldt ST.,
George Jones, Henry Wehr, Max Schaldt - 1903

11

Teiser: What is this office, on page 3?

M.S. Jr. That s Gamble [Gamba?, at right]. He didn t

didn t know anything about the business. Uncle
Schmidt threw him out or something like that.
This was the main office. There s an office boy.

Teiser: Is that Uncle Schmidt in the cap?

M.S. Jr. Yes. That s Gussie Fortrida over there. No, not
Fortrida, a Spanish name. Tanforan. She was a
good worker, but she could swear like a trooper.

Teiser: Is this the office too, on page 4?

M.S. Jr. This is the entrance of the office.

Teiser: The people on page 5?

M.S. Jr. These are two fellows that ran the factory office-
Oscar Heath and Max Schmidt.

Teiser: Heath s on the left. Max Schmidt is standing oh,
that s you! Who is the second man from the left,
in the derby?

M.S. Jr. Henry Zellerbach.

Teiser: What was he doing there?

M.S. Jr. Selling paper. The man in the cap is Uncle Rahs-

skopff. Uncle Richard was the boss here, and I was
his assistant in the factory office. That s Uncle
Richard at the desk. He was a graduate of the
University of Charlottenburg . His father was a
doctor. He was sent over here to Schmidt Lithograph
Company to learn the trade. He made good. I guess

12

M.S. Jr. it wasn t a job he liked. I used to know Andy
Moyles, an Irishman. He didn t like him [Uncle
Richard?] because he bragged too much. I got well
acquainted with Andy Moyles. He swore like a
trooper. He was foreman of the transfer department,
and I think they paid him $135 a week or something
like that. A big guy, but I liked him. I really
enjoyed him. This man [to the left of Rahsskopff]
was an Alameda man. This was Uncle Richard s
office.

Henry Zellerbach was a nice guy. I liked him.
But the rest of them didn t like him because he
watched the nickels. He took us out to lunch-
Oscar Heath [and myself].

Teiser: Here is page 6. What office is that?

M.S. Jr. Lithographic artists department.

Teiser: Here s page 7.

M.S. Jr. I know this fellow. Bill Morrow. He s a paper
hanger. He was one of the Mission bosses.

Teiser: What were the women doing there?

M.S. Jr. Hanging paper. They hung it by hand. Nothey
put it in trays here. But they also hung it by
hand.

Teiser: Here s page 8.

M.S. Jr. They re the wood engravers. That s the head wood
engraver [on the left]. He came from the East.
These kids are errand boys.

13

Teiser: Page 9. What department 1s that?

M.S. Jr. I guess box makers.

Teiser: Page 10.

M.S. Jr. Transfer machines. D1ck Heinrich. His father

was an engineer. I ll say this with due respect-
he was a pal of Uncle Richard s, and Uncle Richard
kept him sober. Dick Heinrich [left] was a good
transfer man.

Teiser: Who is the man on the right?

M.S. Jr. I ve forgotten his name. He came from Los Angeles.
The fellows didn t like him because he considered
himself so much better than Dick Heinrich, who
learned his trade at the Schmidt Lithograph Company
and showed him up.

Teiser: Here s page 11. What s that?

M.S. Jr. This is the transfer department, and these are

transfer machines here. You put the squeeze down
on the plate and then wet it once in a while. That s
the only way you could. Now it s all done by photo
graphy. George Caldwell [right] was a San Jose boy,
very religious. He had a good education. He went
back east and was a big shot somewhere.

Teiser: Page 12.

M.S. Jr. That s the transfer department. Harry Anderson, or
something like that [right]. He was a San Francisco
boy. Good transferer; learned his trade at Schmidt.

14

Teiser: Here s page 13.

M.S. Jr. This is the transfer department.

Teiser: Page 14.

M.S. Jr. George Caldwell. That s not the transfer depart
ment. That s a printing press. I don t recognize
anything else.

Teiser: Page 15.

M.S. Jr. Box department. Klein.

Teiser: The fellow with the cap in the foreground?

M.S. Jr. Yes. These are old presses, cutting presses. Ed
Pierce [left foreground with moustache]; he had
charge of the box department.

Teiser: Here s 16.

M.S. Jr. Those are aluminum presses. We used to call them
aluminum presses. Made by the Aluminum Press Com
pany. They used aluminum plates. Later on there
were offset presses.

Teiser: Page 17.

M.S. Jr. Charlie and Louis Traung, the big shots [standing
at left in foreground looking at sheet]. Louis
was foreman [right, holding sheet of paper] and
Charlie was his brother. They were good pressmen,
but I won t say the other.

Teiser: And they later established Traung Lithograph?

M.S. Jr. Zellerbach*established that.

Zellerbach Paper Company according to Herman
Diedrichs. See page 42.

15

Teiser: Zellerbach s money?

M.S. Jr. Yes. Louis was a good pressman, Charlie was a good
talker. One of the Traungs, Louie s daughter, when
he quit us, she came over and said, "Max, Father
wants to know whether you can work for us?" I
said, "You mean for Zellerbach." She said, "It s
not Zellerbach." She bawled me out. I said, "I m
going to stay at Schmidt." I enjoyed her.

Teiser: Here s page 18.

M.S. Jr. These are printing presses, I think. Miehle presses.
That s Uncle Richard [in suit at right]. He never
had anything to do with the printing presses, but
he was an engineer by profession.

Teiser: Do you recognize the man in the derby with the
moustache?

M.S. Jr. That s Henry Zellerbach. I liked Henry very much.

Teiser: Page 19.

M.S. Jr. Aluminum presses. See these big cylinders and so
forth?

Teiser: Were women press feeders?

M.S. Jr. Yes, that s right. And they got good money for
those days.

Teiser: Page 20.

M.S. Jr. Lithographic pressroom. There s Ed Pierce, foreman

of the box department [in the apron, near the center]
Good worker.

16

Tei ser: Here s page 21 .

M.S. Jr. These are aluminum presses. All local boys. The

girls are feeders.
Teiser: Page 22.
M.S. Jr. Job department. Or was it the embossing department?

No, job department. Reprinting department. That

was Dick Ellis [left] .
Teiser: Page 23.
M.S. Jr. This fellow looks f ami 1 iar--Charl ie Farrell [right,

with moustache]. Charlie Farrell was a printing

pressman. He was a good pressman. He was a nice

man too.

Teiser: Page 24.
M.S. Jr. Charlie Farrell.

Teiser: Oh, same fellow, with the moustache there.
M.S. Jr. This is the same pressroom the Miehle pressroom

You may find some corrections. I was not an expert.

But I was a feeder for a while. They paid good

wages .

Teiser: This is page 25.
M.S. Jr. Cutting department.
Teiser: Here s page 26. What is that?
M.S. Jr. All dies. Die cutting.
Teiser: Did women run die cutting machines?
M.S. Jr. No, they fixed the sheets for some cutter.

Coating and drying oil can labels - 1903

17

Teiser: Here s page 27. What department was that?

M.S. Jr. Cutting department.

Teiser: Page 28.

M.S. Jr. That s Ed Pierce [in the overalls, center]. To the

best of my knowledge, he had charge of the die

cutting, but that s not die cutting. I can t

recognize that.
Teiser: This is page 29.
M.S. Jr. Paul Nye [left end], Electrotyping . Nye s brother

was foreman of the machine shop. He swiped a lot

of things. He was accused by Rahsskopff of being

a crook, but he was a hard worker.
Teiser: Here s page 30.
M.S. Jr. Here s the machine shop. This fellow was a college

graduate, but he was fired out of college. He came

from the East. [Man to the right]
Tei ser : Page 31 is....
M.S. Jr. Electrical department.
Teiser: The power plant?
M.S. Jr. Yes.

Teiser: Here s page 32. What department is that?
M.S. Jr. Must be the cutting department or something like that
Teiser: Page 33.
M.S. Jr. Paper department. Paper hanging department. You

know they had to take the paper and fix it and let

18

M.S. Jr. air in between, and hang it up. Now It s all done
by machinery.

Teiser: Here s page 34.

M.S. Jr. Seasoning. I might be wrong on this.

Teiser: Here s page 35. Is that part of the seasoning
department too?

M.S. Jr. Yes. Hanging up paper and . . .

Teiser: Page 36.

M.S. Jr. That s varnishing.

Teiser: Where was the building shown on page 1?

M.S. Jr. Second and Bryant. The presses were on the ground
floor.

Teiser: What did you use letterpress for?

M.S. Jr. Salmon labels for Alaska Packers.

Teiser: Why didn t you use lithography?

M.S. Jr. Oh, we didn t have any presses big enough.

Teiser: Oh, you couldn t run them in big sheets?

M.S. Jr. No, you couldn t. Later you could, but you had to
have separate blocks then. But we had our own
electrotype department. The bindery was over on
this side [right], paper coating up in the top
floor. And the artists department was on this
Inside of the top floor.

Teiser: What was on the second floor?

M.S. Jr. Transfer department, and the office, and some other

19

M.S. Jr. departments.

Teiser: What was in the three-story section at the right?

M.S. Jr. Bindery on the third floor, on the second floor

the box department, and on the lower floor Ink

department and so forth.
Teiser: Well, thank you for going through that album. It s

very Interesting.
M.S. Jr. It s interesting to me too.

20

Herman Diedrichs was born in San Francisco 1n
June, 1887, and grew up in the Mission District near the
Schmidt Lithograph Company building at Second and Bryant
Streets. He first went to work there in 1902, and soon
after, as he recounted in his interview, became a "fly
boy." Thereafter he progressed to press feeder to pressman
to pressroom superintendent, a position he held at the time
of his retirement in 1959. He was a friend of Max Schmidt,
Jr. and other Schmidt family members of his generation.

This interview took place in Mr. Diedrichs 1 home
in San Francisco June 6, June 9 and June 13, 1967. On
October 9 of that same year Mr. Diedrichs died. He did not
read the transcript of the interview. Editing by the
interviewer was confined to deleting some irrelevant
questions and some conversational repetitions.

21

HERMAN DIEDRICHS

Early Career at Schmidt Lithograph Company

Teiser: When did you start with the Schmidt Lithograph
Company?

Diedrichs: I started in 1902.

Teiser: What was your first position?

Diedrichs: Well, you can understand, 1902, it s a good many
years ago. [Laughter] Well, to give you the
history of it: I was born and raised within a
stone s throw of the company. Schmidt Lithograph
Company was on the corner of Second and Bryant
Streets and a little alley called Stanley Place.
Right opposite to them, across the street, was
the Lachman and Jacobi winery. It had been
there for a good many years. I was born and
raised right in that neighborhood. So I went to
school at St. Brendan s School, which was part
of the Sisters of Mercy, you know. It was on
Fremont and Harrison Streets. And they [the
Sisters of Mercy] were the attendants at St.
Mary s Hospital, and St. Mary s Hospital was
right across the street from my home. It was
destroyed in the fire. It was dynamited. Of
course, I was brought up and raised there. I

22

Diedrichs: left school when I was about fourteen, and I
went to work for the Emporium as a cash boy
about 1900. I stayed there for about a year and
a half. And I got a job over at the Schmidt
Lithograph Company. It was right across the
street from where I lived.

Teiser: Did you know anyone in the company?

Diedrichs: Oh, yes. There was a Mr. Pierce who used to run
the box department. He was a friend of my
father s .

Teiser: Yes, I think his picture is in one of the
albums .

Diedrichs: So I got there, and was there about a month or
month and a half and I got a case of smallpox.
It all developed that about the time I left the
Emporium there were a couple of cases of smallpox
there, and I imagine I caught it from there. So
I was out in the pesthouse for about a month and
a half.

Teiser: Where was it then?

Diedrichs: Right in back of the county hospital.

Teiser: Oh, the San Francisco General Hospital?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: On the same site as at present?

Diedrichs: Yes. It was just in back of that. So, anyhow

23

Diedrichs: when I got over the sickness, I came back to
the Schmidt Lithograph Company, and my job 1n
the box department was taken. So I was sent
down to work for Mr. Louis Traung in the press
room. I started in there as what they call a fly
boy. I used to carry sheets to the bronzer and
help around the presses. I was there for a
short time and some of the boys that were feeding
presses quit. They d go out and work in other
shops. So right away Louis Traung put me on a
press as a feeder. I was feeding a press for
about two or three years. We had a strike down
there, went out on strike for more money.

Teiser: The whole city or just the Schmidt plant?

Diedrichs: The whole city. I was a charter member of the
first feeders union established here in San
Francisco.

Teiser: What was it affiliated with?

Diedrichs: It was a printers union. You might have heard
of Ed [Edward D.] McGinity. He was president of
the feeders union at that time. They took the
lithograph feeders into the printing feeders
union. We went out for more money. I think
we were getting about $6 a week at the time,
feeding presses. So we got a raise to $9 a week,

24

Diedrichs: and $12 a week, and $15 a week. So I was

feeding a $9-a-week press. As I say, some of
the boys quit for other jobs. We were out on
strike for a short time and went back. We got
our demands, you know.

We were under the printing feeders. It
finally developed that they had enough members
from the lithograph establishments around town
to form a lithograph feeders union . We finally
got a charter and we pulled away from the print
ing feeders and a lithograph feeders union. I
was a charter member of that. Then there was
a pressmen s union, local number 17. Of course,
when I got to be a pressman I was in the press
men s union. In 1922 we had a strike in the
lithograph business, and all pressmen and feeders,
and everyone else, were out on strike. I was
employed at that time with the Schmidt Lithograph
Company. And we were out for eight months.

Teiser: Was the whole plant down for eight months?

Diedrichs: No, they hired other help.

Teiser: Oh, they did?

Diedrichs: Yes, eight months we were out on strike. At the
time I was married and had three children. The
union paid you ten dollars a week. And they [the

25

Diedrichs: company] didn t want you to accept it. They
[the union] finally lost the strike, finally
lost out. Two or three years after that, they
organized what they called the Amalgamated
Li thographers 1 Union , and I was a charter member
of that. That s still in existence.

Teiser: To go back to your days as a feederwhen you

say you were feeding a $9-a-week press, did your
wage depend upon the size of the press?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: What size press was a $9-a-week?

Diedrichs: The $9-a-week was 28 by 42.

Teiser: What kind of a press was it?

Diedrichs: A stone press.

Teiser: What was the biggest stone press?

Diedrichs: They used to come 48 inches.

Teiser: Forty-eight by what?

Diedrichs: About 26 by 48, something like that.

Teiser: A heavy stone.

Diedrichs: Yes, that s right. Oh, they were large. It used
to take two men to lift them in the press. But
anyhow, I was feeding for a few months, and I
finally got elevated to the aluminum press at
that time. We had stone presses and aluminum
presses at that time. Not until after the fire

26

Diedrichs: did we have the offset press.

Teiser: Was the aluminum press a direct litho press?

Diedrichs: A direct litho press, yes. Where it got the

name "aluminum" was the plates they used on the
presses at that time were of aluminum metal.
They were rotary presses, and all stone presses
were flatbed presses. A flatbed press would
print a sheet and then go out and ink up the
form again and come back and print another sheet.
But the rotary presses kept going around. These
aluminum plates were made for the rotary presses.

Teiser: Did you make them in the plant?

Diedrichs: Yes. They didn t make the metal, but they

made the plates in the plant. It was all hand
transfer at that time.

Teiser: The aluminum plates were hand-transferred?

Diedrichs: That s right, all hand-transferred. So I was
feeding the aluminum press for about a year or
so--two years and Louis Traung came to me one
day and said, "There s a chance for you to get
an apprenticeship here." But he said, "I can t
pay you $15 a week to start with. I ll pay you
$11. It s a chance for you to get ahead." So
I accepted the job. I said, "I ll take the
chance." So I was apprenticed, and I was running

27

Diedrichs: the stone press for aboutwell, the fire was

1906, and I was running the stone press then.
Teiser: How old were you?
Diedrichs: In 1906. . . when I left school I was fourteen.

Oh, I was about sixteen or seventeen years old.
Teiser: That was a responsible job for a young fellow,

wasn t it?
Diedrichs: Yes. I was made an apprentice pressman by

Louis Traung. He was foreman down there, and

his brother worked there too.
Teiser: What was Louis Traung like?
Diedrichs: A very nice man. They were two nice men, but

Louis Traung was the best of the two brothers.

They started in down on Main Street, you know,

long before I got there.
Teiser: With Schmidt Lithograph?
Diedrichs: That s right.

I served my time as an apprentice, and a short

time after we came to San Francisco from Oakland--

you know we went over there after the fire--you

know the Schmidt Lithograph Company moved to

Oakland?

28
1906 to 1908

Teiser: Yes. Tell me your recollections of the day of
the fire, and what happened then. Did you still
live near?

Diedrichs: Yes. My home was destroyed by the fire.

Teiser: Where were you? You were in bed I suppose, at
the time of the first quakes.

Diedrichs: Yes. And I got up as usual and after all the
excitement, went over to the shop. Everything
was normal over there. Everybody was running
around and all excited.

Teiser: They weren t working, were they?

Diedrichs: No. There was nothing to do, so we sent every
body home that showed up for work that morning.

Teiser: Was Max Schmidt, Sr., there?

Diedrichs: Yes, yes. Ben was there. The whole Schmidt

family was there that morning. But, as I say,
the fire was getting so bad that about four or
five o clock in the afternoon they dynamited
a lot of buildings down there.

Teiser: The same afternoon?

Diedrichs: That s right. The first day. My wife worked

1n the shop. She was a hand feeder down there.
That s how I met her. We were going together at
the time and she suggested that I go with her

29

Diedrichs: folks to where they were going. They lived

across the street from the Del Monte mill; you
might have heard of that, down on Brannan Street.
I forgot to mention that I was an orphan, since
I was about three or four years old. I lived
with my aunt, and she raised me.

So, at that time, I went with my wife. There
was a truck that was moving some of their be
longings out to Bayview. way out to Bayview.
We went out there while the fire was raging,
thinking we could come back to our homes again.
In the meantime, they were dynamited. So that
was the end of that.

Teiser: Both your home and your wife s family s home?

Diedrichs: They were burned. But the [Schmidt Company]
buildings were dynamited to save the property
around there.

Teiser: Was much taken out of the Schmidt plant at that
time?

Diedrichs: Well, to tell you the truth, I didn t stay around
long enough to find out. The company employed
some of the help to clean up some of the debris
after the fire, to keep them busy, you know.

Teiser: Did you go to work on the cleaning up?

30

Diedrichs: No. I only stayed out in Bayview with these
friends of my wife s for about two weeks.
I had an aunt up in Shelton, Washington. She
heard about the disaster, so she sent for me and
my sister to come up there and stay with her. So
I took a trip up to Shelton, and I was up there
for about two or three months. Then I wrote to
my boss, Louis Traung. I heard that they were
moving over to Oakland. He sent me a letter,
told me to come back to work. So I went back
to work, in Oakland, for the company.

Teiser: I have been told something of this, but I still
don t understand how as specialized a company as
Schmidt could have started operation in anybody
else s plant. Where was the plant there in
Oakland?

Diedrichs: It was on Fifth and Adeline. It was a box fac
tory. The old man [Max Schmidt] bought out this
box factory.* They saved some of the equipment,
I mean they rebuilt some of the equipment from
the fire.

Teiser: From the San Francisco plant?

Diedrichs: That s right. They moved some of it over there
and got it running.

Teiser: I see. That s how they did it.

_ _ _ __ . _ . _

Wempe Brothers

31

Diedrichs: I forget now. There were three or four stone

presses and about four aluminum presses --d1 rect
presses. And they ran three shifts on them,
right around the clock.

Teiser: What kind of work was there to be done then?

Diedrichs: Mostly labels. We specialized in labels at that
time .

Teiser: And the canning industry wasn t upset by the
earthquake, I suppose, so much?

Diedrichs: Well, they did labels for all over back east;

not only in California, but all over the country.
They have offices in Chicago, New York, and all
over the country.

Teiser: I didn t understand how they could just move
into a plant in Oakland and go on. Had they
rescued designs, for instance? Had they rescued
plates?

Diedrichs: They had a vault under the sidewalk on Bryant
Street where they used to keep what they call
the original stones, the original designs. You
know all this work was hand-transferred and rolled
up on a roller and transferred. Of course, you
understand what lithographing is: they print
from here then print a dozen 1 ayout--f ifty
labels on each sheet from one original.

32

Teiser: You transfer the impression over and over and
over again?

Diedrichs: That s right. In other words, a hand transferer--
he used to take these originals and pull im
pressions of them, one at a time. And when
he d get as many as was necessary to make a
whole form, they would be stuck up on a sheet,
then hand transfered. They d go to a transfer
press. This would be the plate, and this design,
all the designs on here, would be put over here
like this and transfered.

Teiser: Placed on top of it?

Diedrichs: Yes, go on through a machine and transfered onto
there. These all had to be processed after that.

Teiser: So in the end the one design was etched many
times into the plate, or the stone--the same
thing side by side and up and down.

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: The same for plates?

Diedrichs: That s right. Only the difference now is they
don t hand transfer them any more. This is all
done by photocomposing , all photographs.

Teiser: With a step-and-repeat machine?

Diedrichs: Yes, that s right.

Teiser: Back to 1906--they had saved the original individual
stones?

33

Diedrichs: Most of them, yes.

Teiser: So they were able to take them to Oakland?
Diedrichs: Yes, and continue their work. Of course, the

new work that came, natural ly, they had to make

new stones. They had an artist who worked on

these stones.
Teiser: Was the Oakland plant very much smaller than

the San Francisco plant?
Diedrichs: Oh, yes, yes.

Teiser: About how many people worked there?
Diedrichs: Well I d say. . . at least a couple of hundred

or so, more than that three hundred maybe.
Teiser: And how many had worked in San Francisco?
Diedrichs: I guess it was a little more than that. Most

of the people, after the fire, went back east

or got different jobs and went to different

places .
Teiser: Was Louis Traung in charge of the pressroom in

Oakland too?

Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: And you went to being. . . ?
Diedrichs: Pressman.

Teiser: Were you a journeyman pressman by then?
Diedrichs: No, I was still an apprentice pressman. Then

the firm moved over here, built the second building

34

Diedrichs: over here. They installed all the machinery
from Oakland in 1908 that was.

Teiser: They brought machinery back from Oakland?

Diedrichs: Installed new machinery, and a lot of equipment
from Oakland they moved over. I was running a
stone press in Oakland. But when I got to the
City, I was running an aluminum press, a direct
press printing from aluminum a rotary press.
It was about that timein 1906 that the first
offset presses came out. In fact, they had one
over in Oakland.

Teiser: Oh, they did? What size press was that?

Diedrichs: That was just a small press, about now what

was that they were running a 22-inch sheet on
it. Just a small offset press.

Teiser: What kind was it, do you remember?

Diedrichs: Harris.

Teiser: Were they the first manufacturers of offset
presses in this country?

Diedrichs: I don t know if there were any other manu
facturers at that time, but Schmidt as long as
I ve been down there, I ve been fighting for
Harris offset presses.

Teiser: You think that s the best?

35

Diedrichs: I did. And Miehle, in the meantime, built an

offset press. They were trying to get into the
Schmidt Company for a good many years. But I
objected to it because we stayed with Harris
all those years. Finally they got one in here,
when Mr. Shaw*came in. [Laughter]

Teiser: Mr. Shaw certainly turned things upside down,
didn t he?

Diedrichs: Yes. You know the plant was built on the old
Donahue mansion grounds, don t you?

Teiser: I didn t know. Peter Donahue. I was looking
at a picture of the house and didn t recognize
it.

Diedrichs: It was a very nice neighborhood at that time.
There used to be some beautiful homes up on
Harrison Street. It used to be [like] Nob Hill
at one time. I remember, when I was a young
fellow, they used to have big parties down there
at the Donahue mansion, and have a canopy over
the entrance for people to go in.

Teiser: When was the Donahue mansion torn down and the
olant built?

Diedrichs: The second plant was built in 1900. They moved
from Main Street to Bryant Street in 1900. It
was Mutual Label and Lithograph Company when I

*
John Shaw

36

Diedrichs: first knew it.

Teiser: When you first knew it [in 1902], And it

changed its name to Schmidt Lithograph Company

later?

Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: After the fire?
Diedrichs: It was after the fire, yes.

Company People and Operations

Teiser: But the ownership and management remained the
same?

Diedrichs: The same, yes. Only there were different men

who were in the firm. Like you might have heard
of Mr. Jones, of Di ckman-Jones . He was one of
the big owners in the plant.

Teiser: Of Mutual ?

Diedrichs: Yes. At that time the Traung brothers were still
running the plant, after the fire. Then they got
in some trouble down there. They finally got out.
The next foreman was Andy Hynes. He was assistant;
He was a pressman down there and they made him
foreman. After he was foreman for a while, a
fellow by the name of George Bastain was foreman.
And Bastain was foreman for a while after Hynes
got out. Then Vic Olsen became foreman, and I

37

Diedrichs: was his assistant.

Teiser: Olsen s?

Diedrichs: Olsen s assistant. He passed away in 1940, and
I became foreman of the plant, and I was up
until I retired.

Teiser: When did you retire?

Diedrichs: In 58--no, 59.

Teiser: My word, that s a long career!

Diedrichs: Fifty-seven years.

Teiser: It must have been a good job.

Diedrichs: No, no, there were a lot of troubles and
worries .

Teiser: You were foreman?

Diedrichs: I was foreman of the pressmen after Mr. Olsen

passed away. Then later on I was made superin
tendent of the pressroom. The pressroom got
larger all the time in the meantime. You heard
about the company buying out the Galloway
Company?

Teiser: That s a seed package company, isn t it?

Diedrichs: Yes, they specialized in seed packets. They
were on Howard Street. There was a Mrs.
Schoning that owned it. She had two sons, Otto
and Herbert. They ran the business for her.
The Schmidt Lithograph Company bought them out.

38

Diedrichs: Old Max bought out the Schoning company.

Teiser: About when was that?

Diedrichs: I couldn t tell you the exact year. But they ve
been with the [Schmidt] company for the last
twenty years, or more than that.

Teiser: After World War I, do you think it was?

Diedrichs: It was after World War I, I m sure. Then, of

course, you know they built this building across
the street*in the meantime.

Teiser: Yes. What was that built for?

Diedrichs: That was to expand the business, more room and

one thing and another. But at the time they didn t
have enough machinery and stuff to occupy that
building. They were going to rent it out. Fin
ally it developed that they moved a lot of the
presses and stuff from this side [the old build
ing] to that side of the street.

Teiser: That newer building was on Second?

Diedrichs: Same street.

Teiser: But the next block south?

Diedrichs: Right across the street, to the south. They
made all their corrugated boxes over there.

Teiser: Was that what it was used for finally?

Diedrichs: The ground floor was. But the rest of the

building--as I say--they moved the presses from

*Plant No. 2

39

Diedrlchs: Galloway Lithograph Company over there. That

was like a plant in itself, because the Schoning
brothers used to run that under a separate, you
might saySchmidt was paying for everything,
but they were running the seed bag department
over there just as if it was their own plant
down on Howard Street.

Teiser: Did it occupy two floors then?

Diedrichs: No, no, part of one floor, the third floor.

Eventually the company moved the transfer room,
which was in the old building, they moved that
over to the new building, and plate making and
artists all went over across the street.

Teiser: That building would have been built when? About
1920?

Diedrichs: I have something here. Just a minute, I ll show
it to you. Here.

Teiser: Oh, that s a dedication program.*

Diedrichs: 1925. This is the entrance.* That s Mr.

Richard Schmidt [on page 5]. It gives you a lot
of dope in there.

I got this watch when I retired.

*

Dedication of Plant No. Tvo Schmidt Litho. Co.,
San Francisco, November 11, 1925. Pamphlet.

**

Picture on cover of pamphlet.

40
Teiser: Oh. [Reading] "Presented to Herman Diedrlchs

5/16/1902--1952, by the employees of Schmidt

Lithograph." That s a beautiful watch.
Diedrichs: This is the sort of thing they used to print

[showing a copy]. The Tower Time they used to

call it. They used to put out this paper every

month or so.
Teiser: They had a lot of publications and things for

the employees?
Diedrichs: Oh, yes. Like this is in 1920 [photograph

belonging to Mr. Diedrichs].

Teiser: Oh, that must be one of the parties.
Diedrichs: One of the parties. They were well-known for the

parties .

Teiser: Did they give a party every year?

Diedrichs: Oh, they used to have a salesmen s get-together,

bring in all the salesmen from different areas.
Now, this [photograph] is the last press they

put in when I was down there. It s a four-color

press, four-color Harris press. These are some

double labels they printed on it down there.
Teiser: When was that they put it in?
Diedrichs: That was in 1958.
Teiser: Were the direct litho presses single colors?

Did you just run them through repeatedly for

multiple impressions?

41

Diedrichs: That s right. They were all single-color

presses. They were single-color presses until
we came back from Oakland. Then they ordered
two-color presses. But they were still direct
presses .

Teiser: Were these aluminum?

Diedrichs: Aluminum. They were direct. And, as I say, the
first offset press we had was installed in Oak
land. After we got to this side, then they
installed a larger size press. Then they went to
a larger size. Vic Olsen was the first one to
run the offset press.

Teiser: I suppose some of the labels required many colors,
did they?

Diedrichs: Oh, yes. Well, the standard label at that

time was there was yellow, red, dark

blue, light blue, and they used to run a pink--
that s right. It was five colors. Finally they
got it down to four colors.

Teiser: Did you ever do more than five colors?

Diedrichs: Oh, yes.

Teiser: What was the most?

Diedrichs: Not in labels. If you mean advertising, we did
ten and twelve colors.

Teiser: For what kind of material was that?

42

Diedrichs: For any kind of material, ice cream material,
advertising .

Teiser: Was this for point of purchase material, for
display material?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: My word! The registration problem!

Diedrichs: That s right. Well, that s where the four-color
press came in handy, because they could register
all the colors at one time. You know, Louis
Traung was the first one to install a four-color
press. He had Harris make the first four-color
press that was ever built. He ran it right down
here on Battery Street.

Teiser: In the Traung Company?*

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: When he and his brother left Schmidt, did they
just go directly into their own business?

Diedrichs: No, he and a fellow named Adam Pringle went into
business together. I don t know how many years
they were in business when--I think it was
Zellerbach Paper Company got behind Louis Traung
and started him in business down here on Battery
Street. All they had was direct presses at the
time. In the meantime, Schmidt was printing in
offset. So finally they got in the offset game

Traung Label and Lithograph Company

43

Diedrichs: and gradually built it up and built it up. Then
Louis Traung--it was his own idea to build this
four-color press. Nobody thought you could
print four colors at one time. They thought
the colors would be too wet to print on top of
one another. So, it proved a success.

Teiser: Did it take a lot of special ink formulating?

Diedrichs: Yes, changed inks and everything. Had to have
all special inks for it. One ink wouldn t trap
on top of another, the ordinary ink; they had to
make a special ink so that the colors would all
print on top of one another. Otherwise it s
just like trying to paint something.

Teiser: On a wet surface?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: Did Louis Traung work out any of the ink prob
lems himself? Or did Harris do that?

Diedrichs: Harris had nothing to do with the ink problem.
It was all local, all between Louis Traung and
the Schmidt Lithograph Company. You know we had
our own ink plant?

Teiser: Yes. I saw a picture of it.

Diedrichs: Jack Galvin was there, and Paul Monelli. He

started from nothing. This goes back and back.
You could talk for years on it, but I m just

44

Diedrichs: picking spots. But when I went down to work

there they only had one ink mill and they had it
out in the varnish room. They used to have-
it s hard to explain it just like a stick of
wood like this and it was on like a ladder, only
that it was spaced farther apart. They d var
nish a sheet and hang it over this ladder, or
whatever it is we called it, and varnish another
sheet and this other stick would come up and
they d lay it over there. And this varnish
machine used to go way up about a hundred feet
in the air and come down.

Teiser: It would travel around?

Diedrichs: Round, see. In the meantime the varnish would

be drying on the sheet. That s the way they had
them drying the sheets.

Teiser: This was like a traveling belt?

Diedrichs: That s right. Now, today, they varnish a sheet--
they varnish them and stack them up in piles.

Teiser: Do they run under a heat unit as they leave?

Diedrichs: Yes. They go through a heat unit now. And it s
very simple. They come out all ready to cut.

Teiser: How long did it take them to dry in the air
that way?

45
Diedrichs: It used to take maybe three or four hours or

something like that. They had only one ink mill
at that time. An old fellow by the name of
McMahon used to run it out there. All they did
was grind some colors through it. So after they
got established over here, after the fire . . .
why, there was a chemist down in the shop they
hired. His name was Doc Jaggard* He started
this ink room down there and he hired Jack Galvin,
who didn t know a thing aboutit. Between the two
of them they mixed different colors and one thing
and another. And it developed into quite a bus
iness down there. They made all their own inks,
I mean all their own special colors. They made
it up from a powder, you know--varnishing . They
bought the powders to make the colors. They
used to make special colors for posters, for ad
vertising and for labels, made all their own
inks down there. You know they had a block
department and a corrugated department that used
to use ink also. The ink that was left over from
the lithograph department, that they couldn t use
any more, John Galvin used to grind it and make
colors for the block department because it wasn t
so particular.

Belmont P. Jaggard

46

Teiser: What did the block department do?

Diedrichs: Mostly can labels. They had the biggest con
tract. They had a contract with the Alaska
Packers for a good many years, printing salmon
labels .

Teiser: Why do you call it the block department? This
is the letterpresses?

Diedrichs: That s right. They printed from blocks.

Teiser: Oh, from electros [electrotypes]?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: And they re called blocks?

Diedrichs: Blocks, yes. They used to turn out millions of
salmon labels down there every year. They were
always printing.

Teiser: How many colors?

Diedrichs: It was mostly four colors. Millions of them.

Teiser: Were they single-color printing presses?

Diedrichs: They were for awhile, then they had two-color
presses. Not over two-color.

Teiser: What were those, Miehles?

Diedrichs: All Miehles, yes, a good many years down there.
That was a big establishment, you know. They
started printing the salmon labels on letter
presses. Later on they printed them all on litho
graph presses. But they started in that way.

47

Teiser: I ve taken you away from the ink department.
You were talking about developing the fast-
drying inks for the four-color lithograph press.
Did Schmidt Lithograph Company work with the
Traungs on developing those inks? Was Schmidt
Lithograph Company interested in the develop
ment of that four-color press?

Diedrichs: It was Louis Traung s original idea.

Teiser: He didn t ask for help from Schmidt with it?

Diedrichs: No, no. He was in business essentially for
himself by then.

Teiser: Did he get help from the local ink companies?

Diedrichs: Oh, absolutely. Yes, yes. With his own sug
gestions for this and that. And they improved
those inks so that you could print four colors.

Teiser: Was he a very inventive man?

Diedrichs: He was a very good mechanic. He was a wonderful
man. Talk to anybody in the trade, you know:
Louis Traung.

Teiser: Yes.

Diedrichs: Louis Traung and his brother. When I first went
down there, his brother was a pressman, he was
a stone pressman. Louis originally was a press
man. He became a pressman, and his brother
Charlie got to be way up in the union. He used

48

Diedrichs: to go back east to the union conventions, and
everything else. The last time he was down at
Schmidt, he had charge of the art room down there.
He was promoted so he had charge of the art room,
the artists, down there. And they finally got
out of there. The Schmidt Company found out
that they were doing business with an ink
company and getting a little on the side or
something like that. So, it finally developed
that they were out.

Teiser: I understand standards were a big different then.
Mr. Max Schmidt, Jr., told me there was a fair
amount of steal ing .

Diedrichs: Oh, yes. One of their best office helpers got
away with quite a bit of money. Then he killed
himsel f .

Teiser: For heaven s sake!

Diedrichs: Just down on Third Street. They found out that
he was getting away with a lot of money, and he
took his life.

Teiser: To go back to the block department, did the
regular pressroom foremen and superintendent
have to handle the letterpress presses too?

Diedrichs: No, there was a man by the name of Hildebrand,
George Hildebrand, who was foreman of the block

49

Diedrichs: department. And this George Winberg succeeded
him when he passed away. George Winberg was in
charge of the block department right up til
the time he passed away.

Teiser: Did Schmidt Lithograph Company continue to do
letterpress printing until fairly recently?

Diedrichs: Well, on a large scale that stopped, oh, in 56
or something like that. They were printing
Chesterfield labels for a good many years down
there. They had a contract. And that was all
done block. Chesterfield cigarette labels.

Teiser: It went on into the 1950 s?

Diedrichs: Oh, yes. Later than that.

Teiser: I see. Where was the composition done?

Diedrichs: It was all done outside.

Teiser: Who, mainly, did it?

Diedrichs: I can t think of the name of the company that did
it, but it was all done outside.

Teiser: But there was one company that did the composition?

Diedri chs : Yes , yes .

Teiser: Were they nearby?

Diedrichs: Oh, within a short distance. Actually they had
trucks backing in there all the time with blocks
and stuff. We had what we call a job room.

50

Teiser: It set type?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: For the lithography?

Diedrichs: For the lithography and for ... it didn t make

these salmon labels [printed on the] block presses,
but it set type for all kinds of other printing.
They had several job presses up there that they
used to do small jobs on.

Teiser: What kind of presses were they?

Diedrichs: One was a Miehle, I think. Then they had these
other presses that open and close. [Laughter]
I forget the name.

Teiser: Were you at the 1915 Panama Pacific txposition?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: Can you describe the Schmidt building there?

Diedrichs: No, I can t. There was quite an exhibit there.
I don t know whether they were in another build
ing, or what they had. I guess they had a booth
in another building. I think that was it.

Teiser: I see. Did they have a press running?

Diedrichs: Yes. In fact they made a proposition with

Harris--! mean Harris made a proposition with them
to install the press at the Expositionno, no!
Harris made a proposition with the Schmidt Litho
graph Company to sell them a press, or donate it

Platen presses

51

Diedrichs: at a certain price, if they d run it in their

plant, down here on Second and Bryant, and have
people come in to see it at demonstrations. You
see?

Teiser: I see!

Diedrichs: At that time, the Exposition, anybody who wanted
to see the Harris offset press in operation would
come to the Schmidt Lithograph Company and get
the demonstration of the press running right
there .

Teiser: Was that a single-color?

Diedrichs: It was a single-color.

Teiser: Wasn t it a bother to have people trudging into
the pressroom constantly?

Diedrichs: No, that was all in the deal. What we were doing
was just printing the regular jobs, just going
on about business as usual. And these people
would come in and look at it and ask questions.
Just look at the press and want to know what this
is for and that. That s the way it worked out.

Teiser: I ll ask another question now that maybe your
wife should answer. In some of the pictures
that Mrs. Stewart Morris gave the Bancroft
Library, there are a good many young women, and
I believe you said Mrs. Diedrichs was a press

52

Teiser: feeder at one time.
Diedrichs: Yes. [Calls Mrs. Diedrichs] Mom! Come on in

a minute. Come over here and sit down.
Teiser: I was saying that I understood that at one time

women were press feeders at the plant. And you

were one?

Mrs . D. : That 1 s right.

Teiser: Wasn t that awfully hard work for a woman?
Mrs. D.: Sit all the time; that s all you had to do. Sit

and put the sheets in the press. That was all.
Teiser: The men brought the stacks and placed them?
Mrs. D.: Oh, yes, they piled them up. That s all you

had to do. You could stand up if you wanted to,

or just sit.
Diedrichs: But the sheets had to register then; they had

to be fed into--
Mrs. D.: There was a guide or something up at the other

end, the top of the press. You d bump against

that and you d put the sheet into that, and these

things would go and go.
Diedrichs: Of course they had to keep the press running

steady all the time. The pressmen would bring

the sheets and put them up on the feed board and

roll them out for the feeder to feed the press.

They had to keep the press in motion all the time.

53

Mrs. D.: I was awfully young when I went there, because
I went up to the eighth grade in school, but I
didn t wait for the graduation. My father was
quite perturbed, but there was a young girl
lived next door, and she kind of talked me into
it. That s why I went there. But then my sister
and I had to go to night school for a year. Then
they sent us to Heald s Business College. It
was after the fire. It was temporarily out on
Van Ness Avenue. So we took up a regular busi
ness course, typing and all that. Then I went
from there into a lawyer s office. That was
kind of uphi 1 1 .

Teiser: And you found a husband on the way.

Mrs. D.: I think he found me. I wasn t looking for

anybody at that time. [Laughter] There were
so many young peopl e--young girls and young guys
down there, you know it was rather nice.

Teiser: It must have been fun.

Mrs. D.: Yes, you struck up an acquaintance. Then we had
parties, and the firm would give picnics. You d
meet at the picnics and all like that.

Teiser: Did many of the young men and young women who
were working there marry?

Mrs. D.: Oh, yes. Quite a few of them, yes.

54

Teiser: I just was wondering really what it was like to
be a press feeder as a young woman.

Mrs. D.: It was fairly simple and easy, you know. Of

course, that was the first thing I d ever done.

Diedrichs: You understand we used to print four-and five-
color labels. And these girls would feed the
presses. We also had boys feeding the presses.
But when the presses had to be washed up, from
one color to another. . .

Mrs. D.: Or any manual labor . . .

Diedrichs: Yes, then the girl would go over and feed a press
that the boy was feeding, and the boy would have
to come back and wash that press up.

Teiser: Oh, the boys did the dirty work.

Mrs. D.: Oh, yes. We never had to put our hands to a thing
Just take the sheets and . . .

Diedrichs: Feed the presses.

Teiser: Did some of the girls also hang paper to season?

Diedrichs: Not down at the Schmidt Lithograph Company.

Mrs. D.: They did hang it in the varnish room, didn t
they? Or take the sheets off in the varnish
room?

Diedrichs: When they varnished a sheet, they put it onto one
of these bars and it would go up in the air.

Mrs. D.: That s the first department I went into.

55

Teiser: Then somebody would have to take them off?

Mrs. D.: We had to take them off. They d come up from

the first floor down there to the second or third,
wasn t it?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Mrs. D.: And there d be so many on a bar. And we had to
take them all off.

Diedrichs: But that s different from seasoning stock to
print. All our lithograph paper has to be
seasoned, that is, if it isn t seasoned in the
[paper]factory . We used to take it in the plant.,
they had seasoning rooms where they used to hang
it up for twenty-four hours or so, then take it
down for printing.

Mrs. D.: Then after the fire and earthquake I didn t work
there. I went across the Bay when they [the
Schmidt Lithograph Company] went across the Bay,
and just worked there a short while. Then I
didn t work there any more.

Diedrichs: That was 1906; then we were married in 1908.

Mrs. D.: That s right, 1908.

Diedrichs: Fifty-eight years married.

56

Diedrichs: We have seven grandchildren and thirteen great-
grandchi Idren .

Mrs. D.: We only have three children ourselves. We are
all pleased with the whole family. They ve all
done well. You can t ask for anything more.
Good health, thank God, so you can t ask for
much more.

Teiser: I should say not.

Mrs. D.: Yes. We stayed in the same house, right here.
We built the house about a year or two after we
were married, had an architect design it and
the contractors build it, and we ve stayed here.
Maybe I have a little bit of Scotch with the
Irish, because I hate to go out and put more
money in, after you have a home and you ve raised
your children in it.

Mutual Label & Litho. Co. 1903 Photograph Album

Teiser: I have numbered the pages in the photograph

albums. What I have done in talking with Mr.
Max Schmidt, Jr. and Mr. Ben Schmidt is to give
the page numbers as we ve gone through them. If
you could look at them in order and make any
comments. . . .

Diedrichs: They probably told you who all these people were.

57

Teiser: Some of them they have, yes. Could you start

with page 1? This is the Mutual Label and Litho
graph Company album of 1903.

Diedrichs: Yes. That s the first building.

Teiser: Where was the tower building in relation to that?

Diedrichs: It wasn t erected at that time. You see, this
is Bryant Street.

Teiser: To the right.

Diedrichs: And this is Second Street.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: And the tower was built here.

Teiser: Oh, beyond on the left edge of the picture.

Diedrichs: That s right. This was the building before the
fire. It had three stories on the side and one
in the middle. That gave the pressroom more light

Teiser: Oh, that was why that middle section was low.

Diedrichs: Yes, because the pressroom was down there. Then
when they built in 1908, they wanted more room
so they built a skylight in the center of the
building. This is the original building that
was built in 1900. At least they started up
there in 1900.

Teiser: Here is page 2.

Diedrichs: Well, of course, this is the office, which is

out of my line. But I know all the people there.

58
Diedrichs: There s Mr. Rahsskopff, Mr. Richard Schmidt,

Mr. Jones--who was one of the shareholders at

the time he was a big shot in the companyMr.

Max Schmidt, and I don t know who this is.
Teiser: Mr. Max Schmidt is on the right end, and the one

you don t know is second from right.

Here is page 3.
Diedrichs: This, of course, is the office. You don t care

to know anybody.

Teiser: If you see anybody you recognize, yes.
Diedrichs: There s Mr. Max Schmidt, I know.
Teiser: Oh, sitting, with the cap on.
Diedrichs: Yes, that s right.
Teiser: Did he always wear that cap?
Diedrichs: A good part of the time. Here s Mr. Richard

Schmidt here, sitting at the desk.

Teiser: Sitting at the desk, in the distant right?

*
Diedrichs: By that door.

Teiser: With his hand on top of a book or something

of the sort.
Diedrichs: Yes.
Teiser: Who s the woman next to him. Do you recognize

her?

Diedrichs: No. I know this young fellow here.
Teiser: In the foreground?

*
In front of the open door.

59

Diedrichs: His name is Gamble, Frank Gamble.
Teiser: Page 4, the office again.
Diedrichs: Of course, we didn t get into the office at that

time, very much.

Teiser: Page 5. Can you name them?
Diedrichs: I don t know the first three gentlemen on the

left, but the next is Mr. Rahsskopff. This

gentleman I don t know, but this is Mr. Richard

Schmidt.
Teiser: Far right. I think this is "German Max" standing

up. He sai d i t was .
Diedrichs: I think it was, but I didn t want to commit

my s e 1 f .

Teiser: This is page 6.
Diedrichs: This, of course is I ve got these written down

here the artists and engraving room. These are

all artists and engravers. You can see them here,

they were working on stones. They used to call

it stipple work.
Teiser: That s to the right. Did the artists do the

general designs and then the engravers execute

them? Or did the artists work directly on

stone?
Diedrichs: The artist worked directly on stone. They were

called the originals. The originals would be

Max Schmidt, Jr.

60

Diedrichs: transferred to the regular press plates.
Teiser: How did you distinguish between artists and

engravers, then, in that department?
Diedrichs: Engraving on stone is different than art work.

Like commercial work, the engraver would engrave
the script, and all that stuff. An artist
would for printing colors, four and five colors
at a time they d have to make a separate original
for each color. And they d do the stipple work.
That s the way the work was done, by stipple, at
that time.

Teiser: Page 7.

Diedrichs: This is the paper stock department and seasoning

room, where they seasoned the paper. This was

the foreman, Mr. Morrow.
Teiser: Standing?
Diedrichs: Yes, with the truck. I don t know who the girl

was .
Teiser: Did they use girls in that department a good

deal?
Diedrichs: Well, for laying out sheets. You see, this is

all paper that s seasoning. They used to season

it that way in those days. They didn t hang the

61

Diedrlchs: paper like they did in later years. These were
laid out in trays.

Teiser: Are they wooden trays?

Diedrichs: Yes, wooden trays. You see, those trays are
very narrow, and very light. They are like
slats, to let the air go through. Well, they
take about that many sheets and put them in one
tray. Then put another tray on top, and then
take a few more sheets. You can see them there.

Teiser: Yes. Did the girls do the lifting of the trays?

Diedrichs: The trays are very light.

Teiser: I see. Here s page 8.

Diedrichs: I m a little bit dubious about that one.

Teiser: Let s see, Mr. Max Schmidt, Jr. said those were
wood engravings.

Diedrichs: That s what I thought they were, engravings, but
I didn t want to commit myself.

Teiser: In the racks.

Diedrichs: Here s a bandsaw where they cut out all the
blocks .

Teiser: Here s page 9.

Diedrichs: That s the stone grinding. Here s the size of
these stones .

Teiser: That big white thing toward the right?

Diedrichs: Yes, that s a stone. I ll show you more later on

62

Diedrlchs: Here s the machine that they used to rotate,
and it had a part on top that used to grind
these stones. They used to have to throw
pumice stone and sand in there to grind all the
old work off the stone.

Teiser: The machine you re describing is the round one
toward the left?

Diedrichs: Yes. Then when they come out of there, these

*
men back here that s Mr. Warren. . .

Teiser: Standing at the back, with the moustache?
Diedrichs: Yes. He s doing what they call polishing the

stone. After it comes out of there he smoothes

it all off.
Teiser: By hand?
Diedrichs: Yes, by hand. There s Mr. Max Schmidt [Jr.]

in back there too.
Teiser: In the dark suit, between the two men who are

doing hand polishing?
Diedrichs: That s right. I know these other men, but I

can t think of their names.
Teiser: This is page 10.
Diedrichs: This is a section of the transfer room. This is

a large stone. See how large that is? You were

asking how big they were, yesterday. And this

man s name is Dick Heinrich.

Michael J. Warren

63

Teiser: Standing right in the center foreground?

Diedrichs: Yes. He was a transfer man, what they called a
transferer at that time. This is a large press
for transferring the work ontowell, I forget
what they called it. To a stick-up sheet, we d
say. And these presses back here are small hand
presses that the men worked. This was the large
one where they put these big stones in.

Teiser: What are these things in the rack to the far
left there?

Diedrichs: Those are all stones.

Tei ser: This i s page 1 1 .

Diedrichs: This is another section of the transfer room.
This is Mr. Richard Schmidt.

Teiser: To the far left?

Diedrichs: Yes. Here s George Caldwell.

Teiser: To the far right.

Diedrichs: And Charlie Martin.

Teiser: Left of him.

Diedrichs: Yes. And I know the others, but I can t recall
their names.

Teiser: What s this thing right in the foreground?

Diedrichs: That s a hand press. Each transfer man operated
one of these hand presses.

Teiser: So there s a whole row of hand presses there in
the picture.

64

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: Page 12.

Diedrichs: And here s another section of the transfer room.

Teiser: What are these sheets?

Diedrichs: Those are . . . couldn t say what that is now.
There s Mr. Cal dwell, way in the back, again.
It s hard to see him.

Teiser: Oh, yes, he s the man to the left in the distance.

Diedrichs: I can recall all these faces, but I can t remember
the names.

Teiser: What is this? Are these hand transfer presses?

Diedrichs: That s the same as you saw on the other page.

Teiser: I see, the same as 11.

Diedrichs: You see they are the same. There s a man for

each one of these presses. And they are all done
by hand.

Teiser: All hand-powered?

Diedrichs: Yes, that s right.

Teiser: With a crank?

Diedrichs: Yes, there was a crank on the side of them. What
they do is, they take a label, an original like
this. It s on stone, and you know grease and
water don t mix. Wherever the work is, that s
grease. The other part of the stone, the water
keeps this hand roller from picking up ink on

65
Diedrichs: the part of the stone that they don t want it

to print on. See?
Tei ser : Yes .
Diedrichs: So they roll this up until it gets a nice black

impression. And they take a piece of transfer

paper and lay it on like that.
Teiser: On top of it.
Diedrichs: And they put some cardboard and stuff on top to

get a good impression. They they fold over

like this.
Teiser: They fold over a hingedwhat do they call that?

Diedrichs: I dont know what it was. They d fold this down
over the stone.

Teiser: Over the top.

Diedrichs: Then he d turn this and grind it through here.
And that would force the pressure of that black
from the stone onto a piece of transfer paper.
That s one impression he d have. If there were
fifty labels on a sheet, he d have to do that
fifty times, off that one stone, to make one job,
Not only that, but there s five colors, so that
would mean five each time. That was hand trans-
ferri ng .

Teiser: So that would make five times fifty. What kind

66

Teiser: of paper is transfer paper, what s it like?

Diedrichs: It s composition; they make it right at the shop.

Teiser: They don t still, do they?

Diedrichs: No, because they don t use stones any more.

Teiser: What kind of paper was it?

Diedrichs: I don t know what you d call what they made it

out of, but it was some kind of gelatin, a paste
like that they d put on this paper. It was just
like when you were a little girl, remember, you
used to transfer from a piece of paper to your
hand those colored objects? It would come off.
He d make--say he had fifty labels on the sheet,
he d have to pull fifty impressions. And when he
got all these impressions pulled, then they had
what they called a key plate--a large plate like
thisthat was all ruled out in sections, so that
each one of these labels would fit in that sec
tion. And they used to do what they called stick
up these transfers on this large key plate. So
they would make a sheet of labels, say fifty
labels, and there d be fifty of these all stuck--.
They had to register it right to a hair on this
key plate so when the plate was ready for the
press each color would fit.

Teiser: How were the fifty impressions placed on that key
plate?

67

Diedrlchs: That key plate would be put through the big
machine. That s a great big machine, see?

Teiser: As is shown on page 10 of the album.

Diedrichs: And that would be transferred to the stone. The
key plate would be 1 ayed on the stone. This
would go throughjust like the small press, only
it was a larger machine. In that way, they d
get all those impressions on one stone. Then
that stone had to be what we called etched, be
processed for the pressroom. It had to go down
to the pressroom. Then it would be put in the
press. We d print from that stone.

Teiser: And if there were five colors there d have to be
five stones?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: What was the key plate made of?

Diedrichs: It was pretty heavy, because it was more of a--
I don t know lead or steel, or what it was.

Teiser: It was a metal?

Diedrichs: It was some kind of metal. The idea was not to

have these labels stretch or get out of position.
They had to have something very heavy and flat
to keep the position that these labels were stuck
up in .

Teiser: Here s page 13.

Diedrichs: Look at the size of those stones. You were

68

Diedrichs: asking the other day.

Teiser: Those were the ones that It took two men to lift?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: What department is this?

Diedrichs: Another section of the transfer room.

Teiser: And page 14?

Diedrichs: I have here [on list] 14 and 15: sections of
job room.

Teiser: Now this was where, you said, they did set some
type too.

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: What s that all over the back wall, on page 14?

Diedrichs: Those are all blocks, you know.

Teiser: Electros?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: And what kind of a press is that in the fore
ground?

Diedrichs: They used to call them pony presses.

Teiser: Letterpresses?

Diedrichs: Yes, letterpress. That s a letterpress, nothing
to do with lithography.

Teiser: And here s 15.

Diedrichs: That s part of the job room.

Teiser: What are those presses?

Diedrichs: It looks like a Miehle press.

69

Teiser: In the center.
Diedrichs: Miehle cylinder press. This is Mr. Wise. He

was the foreman, the fellow with the moustache.
Teiser: He has a moustache and a little hat.
Diedrichs: And I remember this fellow. His name was Frankie

Klein.
Teiser: He s to the right foreground, in the apron,

near the press in the center.
Diedrichs: He was a pressman. There s a lot of them there

that I don t know, I don t recall.
Teiser: It s a long time ago.

Diedrichs: Anyhow, he married a girl from down there.
Teiser: Klein?
Diedri chs : Yes .
Teiser: Page 16.
Diedrichs: This is part of the litho pressroom. These are

all aluminum rotary presses, direct presses, not

offset. All aluminum direct presses. This

pressman here is Bill Ward.
Teiser: In the center.
Diedrichs: And the other pressman, right behind him, is

Billy Bergk. And I m here, a feeder at the time.
Teiser: Oh, just above Bergk. You re standing up, with

an apron on.
Diedrichs: On the press. No apron. That s a pair of

70

Diedrichs: overalls, I guess.
Teiser: Oh, I see, you re standing with one hand on the

feed board.
Diedrichs: Yes, on the feed board. That s the second

press [from the left]. There s the third press

And this is Mr. Richard Schmidt.
Teiser: Oh, yes. He s standing. . .
Diedrichs: He s looking down at the labels.*
Teiser: The labels in the press that you re feeding.
Diedrichs: Yes. There s a young fellow right over here;

his name is Albert Morrison.
Teiser: He s right in front of the rollers of the first

press to the left.
Diedrichs: He s a feeder. This gentleman s head right in

here; that s Louis Traung, the foreman.
Teiser: Let s see how we can identify him. He has dark

hair and his head is directly under a hanging

light. at the back of the room.
Diedrichs: Yes, behind the board there.

Teiser: The feed board of the third press from the left
Diedrichs: He s got a vest on. In back of him is George

Simonsen. He was a pressman at the press.
Teiser: Page 17. Here are the Traung brothers. Which

is which?
Diedrichs: Well, [laughter] the one to the left is Louis.

9f

Actually a poster.

71
Diedrichs: And the one to the right is Charlie Traung. And

these are stone presses, Hoe stone presses.

This feeder is Bill Lampe.

Teiser: The fellow in the overalls up in the center?
Diedrichs: Yes. He s feeding the press. Those are three

stone presses, three Hoe stone presses, that they

printed commercial work on.

Teiser: How big a stone would they take?
Diedrichs: Oh, 28 by 42.
Teiser: This is page 18.
Diedrichs: And here is a section of the litho pressroom.

These are four stone presses, four Campbell stone

presses .

Teiser: Campbell presses?
Diedrichs: Yes. It s a different style press than the other,

but they are all stone presses. These in back

here there are three more in back.
Teiser: In the back row.
Diedrichs: And this one rotary press.
Teiser: On, on the far right is a rotary press?
Diedrichs: That s right. I have it written down here, in

case you want to know.

Teiser: But the others are all Campbell stone presses?
Diedrichs: Campbell stone presses, that s right.
Teiser: What kind of rotary press was it? Was that one

of the aluminum presses?

72
Diedrichs: Aluminum press, yes. Now do you want to start

over here at the left?
Teiser: Yes.

Diedrichs: Here s a pressman here; his name is Dan Hart.
Teiser: On our left.
Diedrichs: Here s another pressman; his name is Dave

Ramsey .

Teiser: Next to him.
Diedrichs: Here s a feeder of that press. His name is Chris

Vanderveen. This fellow up here on the feed

board is ...
Teiser: The next one to the right you don t know, but

the next one is. . .

Diedrichs: Frank Gillespie. And here is Billy Berqk.
Teiser: In front of him.
Diedrichs: Billy Berqk, my pressman.
Teiser: Ah yes, he s in the overalls there.
Diedrichs: And here I am again. Feeding the Campbell press.
Teiser: You re standing up with your arms crossed?
Diedrichs: That s right. To take the picture. Otherwise

we d be all over.
Teiser: You re just about in the center of that picture.

Who s the fellow right in front of you?
Diedrichs: That s Dave Powers. He was a pressman.
Teiser: Who s the fellow in the suit? He looks out of

place.

73

Diedrichs: I wouldn t know him. Then in the back here

is Gus Bouquet. He was a French boy, I think.
Teiser: Third from the right, in the distance. His head

is against a white patch of wall.
Diedrichs: Here s Mr. Richard Schmidt.
Teiser: Yes, he s first right, in the foreground.
Diedrichs: You can t miss him.
Teiser: Yes. He must have gotten all over the plant

all of the time. Page 19.
Diedrichs: This is a section of the litho pressroom. And

this is an aluminum direct rotary press.
Teiser: On the left.
Diedrichs: And these are stone presses.
Teiser: The other two are stone presses?
Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: Are they Hoes or Campbells?

Diedrichs: They re Hoe presses. This is Gus Bouquet again.
Teiser: Center foreground.
Diedrichs: Yes. I don t know who the girl is. I forget

her name. And this is Charlie Traung.
Teiser: He has a whit shirt and a dark tie and an apron

of some sort.
Diedrichs: He s looking down. Right in back of him is Billy

Bergk.

74

Teiser: To Charlie Tracing s left.

Diedrichs: Yes. And standing here is Andy Hynes.

Teiser: Now he has a white shirt and no tie, and over
alls.

Oiedrichs: And in back of him is Dan Hart. He s got a
vest on, or something.

Teiser: He s up to the right of Hynes?

Diedrichs: Yes. I can t recall the other fellows. I know
their faces, but I can t recall them. It was a
funny thing down there, you d work with people
all your life, speak to them and all, and you
don t know their last name in other departments,
I mean, that you d come in contact with all the
time.

Teiser: This is 20.

Diedrichs: Here these are all Hoe presses, all stone presses,
all Hoe presses. This girl feeder is Annie
Schluter.

Teiser: She s standing up against the window on the far
left.

Diedrichs: And this is Dan Hart.

Teiser: He s the first man to the far left.

Diedrichs: There s what they call a bronze machine here,
right here, to the side.

Teiser: The first machine on the left.

75

Diedrichs: Yes. That s where they bronze sheets. They d
take the sheets over there and feed them in by
hand and they d go through a bronzing process,
and they d come out down here. I don t know
if you want to get all these names.

Teiser: Any that you can give.

Diedrichs: That s Charlie Kaiser.

Teiser: He s standing in front of the wall, right of
the bronzing machine.

Diedrichs: Hews the pressman of this press here. Here s
Charlie Rolet.

Teiser: His head is right against the second press there.

Diedrichs: He s pressman of that press. Here s Charlie Troll

Teiser: He has a light-colored shirt.

Diedrichs: He has a moustache, hasn t he?

Teiser: A moustache, and overalls.

Diedrichs: This [magnifying glass] might help. That was
Charlie Troll. Here s Louis Traung.

Teiser: In the white shirt with the tie and the vest.

Diedrichs: Here s Johnny McCormick.

Teiser: With the moustache and the little white tie.

Diedrichs: This is Eddie Freeze.

Teiser: To the far right, in the foreground.

Diedrichs: He was a feeder.

Teiser: What s this? Is this just a rag hanging on the
press?

76

Diedrichs: It s just a rag.
Teiser: They forgot to take 1t away for the picture.

This work on that sheet to the far right. They

look like posters, small posters.
Diedrichs: I ll check on that. That s a large sheet of--

could be advertising posters.
Teiser: Here s page 21 .
Diedrichs: Page 21: one, two, three four Hoe stone presses

All in one section there. The pressman is Eddie

Walters.

Teiser: In the foreground.
Diedrichs: Her first name was Lydia, but I don t recall

her last name.

Teiser: Lydia on the left, Eddie Walters, then. . .
Diedrichs: Josie Desmond. She was a hand feeder. This is

Adam Pringle, pressman.

Teiser: You re naming them from left to right.
Diedrichs: Yes. I don t know this girl. But this girl is

Annie Schluter.

Teiser: Again Annie Schluter.
Diedrichs: Yes. And Charlie Rolet, the pressman. And

Charlie Kaiser, the pressman.
Teiser: Page 22.
Diedrichs: This is part of the embossing department. They

used to use platen presses for embossing. This

77

Diedrichs: is the foreman, Dick Ellis.
Teiser: To the left.
Diedri chs : Yes .
Teiser: Page 23.
Diedrichs: This is a section of the block department. You

know, type in blocks.
Teiser: These are letterpresses?
Diedrichs: Letterpress, that s right. Morino.
Teiser: Fellow in the center foreground in the white

shirt, just behind the press.

Diedrichs: Joe Moreno. And this is Charlie Farrell.
Teiser: In the dirty apron at the right?
Diedrichs: Yes. He was the brother-in-law of Louis Traung.

Louis Traung married his sister. This, of

course, is a Miehle press, and they ve got a

bronzer attached to it.
Teiser: Oh, to the left end.
Diedrichs: You see, the sheets come out and go through the

bronzer and come out there. And all this piping

here is where they draw the excess bronze out.
Teiser: Oh, the powder.
Diedrichs: So it won t fly around.
Teiser: Oh, I see. I wondered how they handled it in a

pressroom so it didn t fly around in the air.
Diedrichs: At one time they had special rooms that they had

78

Diedrichs: the machines in, and they had them all enclosed
with glass. They had them with a little window
where you had to raise it open about that much
and slip, slide the sheets in. They used to have
Chinamen feeding the presses because nobody wanted
to do that job. It was a dirty job.

Teiser: Page 24.

Diedrichs: This is another section of the block printing
department. Here s this fellow this is Andy
Nelson.

Teiser: The second fellow from the left.

Diedrichs: Can you see him?

Teiser: Yes .

Diedrichs: He got his arm taken off down there.

Teiser: How?

Diedrichs: In a Miehle press.

Teiser: My word!

Diedrichs: Well, he had a rag in his hand, and he was wiping
a form off. The rag caught his arm and pulled him
right in.

Teiser: Were there many accidents like that?

Diedrichs: Occasionally. There was a girl feeder, in the
block department also, had her arm taken off on
the same press. She was trying to take a sheet
out. Sometimes a sheet isn t fed properly into

79

Diedrichs: the press and it gets caught in the rollers.
There s a lot of ink on the rollers, and they
have to get all that out of the rollers before
they can start running again. Somehow or other
she was reaching in for a piece of paper.

Teiser: Could this fellow continue working with one arm?

Diedrichs: He did, up until the time he died. He was a
pressman.

Teiser: He continued to be a pressman?

Diedrichs: For a short time after. Then he was put in

charge of the corrugating department, when we had
the corrugating department. Along side of him,
again, is Charlie Far re 11. In the center with
the dirty apron. A lot of these girls I know by
name, but I can t recall most of them.

Teiser: Page 25.

Diedrichs: Twenty-five and twenty-six: bindery and cutting
room. His name was Martin Boyle.

Teiser: He s standing kind of in the center, in the light
clothes with the dark bow tie, on page 25.

Diedrichs: He was a cutter. He was a brother-in-law of
mine. Right next to him was my sister.

Teiser: The seated girl in the white collar and dark
blouse?

Diedrichs: That s right.

80

Teiser: What was her name?
Diedrichs: Deborah Diedrichs. She married Martin Boyle

from the shop. There s another marriage down at

the shop.

Here s Josie Lynch.
Teiser: She s the girl in about the center with the dark

arm guards on, and the light blouse. She has

lots of hair.
Diedrichs: And this is Mr. Gilbert. He used to run cutting

machines down there.
Teiser: Second man from the right, with the white apron.

This is page 26.
Diedrichs: This is a section of the bindery. Those are all

dies.
Teiser: What in the world did they use all those different

kinds of dies for?
Diedrichs: Different labels. They were cut different shapes

and everything.

Teiser: What were the girls doing?
Diedrichs: They were probably helping to get some of those

sheets die cut. I don t see the die cutting

machine there.
Teiser: Page 27.
Diedrichs: Pages 27 and 28, box and carton department. Raisin

cartons they used to make.

81
Diedrichs: Page 28. The gluing machines. This is Ed Pierce;

he was the foreman of that department.
Teiser: The fellow in the moustache in the overalls and

hat. All of these gluing machines were run from

a central drive?
Diedrichs: Yes. In those days that s all they had, pulleys;

pulleys running each machine, the motors.
Teiser: Here s 29.
Diedrichs: That s where they made the electrotypes. In

recent years they sent them out to be made.

Before that they made them right in the shop.
Teiser: These are sinks to the right?
Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: A good messy job, wasn t it?
Diedrichs: Oh, it was a dirty job. This was the foreman,

Paul Ny.
Teiser: First fellow to the left.

Page 30.
Diedrichs: Machine shop. We ll start over here. This is

Clarence Beach.

Teiser: The first on the right.
Diedrichs: This was the foreman, Jules Ny. He was the

brother of Paul Ny, the fellow with the mous
tache .
Teiser: He s the third from the left, rot counting the

82

Teiser: man [looking through the door] in the next room.

Diedrichs: The man in the back is Bob Hancock. He was the
engineer.

Teiser: Page 31.

Diedrichs: This was the electric room. That was what Mr.
Max Schmidt, Electric Max, had charge of.

Teiser: Thirty-two.

Diedrichs: This is a section of the cutting room and bindery.

Teiser: Thirty-three.

Diedrichs: This is the packing room, where they used to

pack all the labels and send them out. They used
to send them out in cartons and cases at that
time. I don t know any of these fellows.

Teiser: Page 34.

Diedrichs: This is the varnish room. It s a part of the
varnish room. This is a varnish press. And
this is what I was trying to explain to you. They
fold these sheets over these bars. Do you see
them. They go way up two or three floors in
the process of drying. They would come down.
Girls would put them on these racks, and when
they d come down on the other side, they d have
to take them off.

Teiser: This was the traveling drying rack?

Diedrichs: At that time, yes.

*
Max A. Schmidt, son of Richard Schmidt.

83

Teiser: The varnish was just put on by a regular press,
is that right?

Diedrichs: Yes. Oh, no. See, there s a trough here?

Teiser: Yes, just to the right of the cylinder.

Diedrichs: The varnish is in here.

Teiser: Below the cylinder to the right.

Diedrichs: The sheet would be fed here and go around there
and get varnished. This roller here would var
nish each sheet as it went around. They went
in up here and came out below.

Teiser: On the tapes and out on the board?

Diedrichs: Yes. And they were taken from there and put
over on these racks to go up and dry. This
fellow who was running the varnish press at the
time was Henry Hageman.

Teiser: He s the man on the right.

Diedrichs: He has a cap on. And this was the foreman.

Teiser: Second from the right.

Diedrichs: McBride was his name. No. What was the name
of the foreman of the varnish room? McMahon,
that was it. Gentleman with the cap on.

Teiser: This is 35.

Diedrichs: This is a section of the bindery.

Teiser: What are those machines?

Diedrichs: Roughening machines. They used to run these

84

Diedrichs: labels through in sheets and roughen them, like
a rough design. Did you ever see them?

Teiser: No. Was it actually roughening the texture?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: So it gave a pebbly texture.

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: Why did they do that? So they wouldn t scuff?

Diedrichs: In one way, yes. But it was quite popular to

have those sheets roughened like that. It made
a nice looking sheet. After it s printed and
roughened it d give a nice appearance.

Teiser: Was that done for labels mainly?

Diedrichs: Labels, mostly labels.

Teiser: Page 36.

Diedrichs: This is an ink storeroom. This man here is,
again, Mr. McMahon. See him in back there?

Teiser: The third man from the left.

Diedrichs: This is Mr. Hageman again.

Teiser: Hageman is second from the left.

Diedrichs: Mr. McMahon was foreman of the varnish room. He
had charge of the varnish room and the storage
of the Ink department down there at the time.
They used to buy inks in cans and store them.
See here?

Teiser: Oh yes, I can see the cans.

85

Diedrichs: This is an ink mill.

Teiser: To the left. And what s this to the right?

Diedrichs: I was trying to figure it was an ink mill, but
it doesn t look like one to me. I guess it is.
That s all of that book unless you want to know
these two pictures here.

Teiser: Yes. This one that s called "Schmidt Litho, 3600
impressions per hour." I ve numbered it 51-B.

Diedrichs: This is an offset press.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: And it s feeding sheets into a bronzer. You see
the sheet s coming out of here, going up here,
through the bronze machine, comes out here. This
is a varnish machine, that I was trying to show
you on the other picture. They were dickering
on buying some of these. These are from the
salesmen. The sheets came down in here.

Teiser: On the tapes.

Diedrichs: And these grippers come around and take the sheet
As it goes down here, this roller rolls varnish
all over the sheet, and the sheet comes out here.

Teiser: On the board?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: I ve numbered this 51-C.

Diedrichs: This is the same thing, but in a different

86

Diedrichs: position. This is Andy Hynes.
Teiser: To the left.

Schmidt Li thograph Co .
1909 Photograph Album

Teiser: This is a 1909 album. Page 1.

Diedrichs: That, of course, is the building.

Teiser: Page 2.

Diedrichs: This is the building, another view of it. It

described it here.

Teiser: Page 3.

Diedrichs: This is the Second Street view.

Teiser: Page 4.

Diedrichs: It shows all the names.

Teiser: Where are they sitting, do you know?

Diedrichs: Director s room.

Teiser: Mr. Chickering was just a director?

Diedrichs: He was a director, and I believe he was a lawyer.

Teiser: Which of these were active in the company?

Moffit was not in the company. How about Hueter?

Diedrichs: No, he wasn t active.

Teiser: Who was Borden, I. L. Borden? Was he in the

company?

Diedrichs: He wasn t active, no.

Teiser: What was Richard Schmidt, Jr. s career?

Diedrichs: He was the son of Max Schmidt, the founder?

87

Telser: And what happened to him? Did he stay in the
company?

Diedrichs: He stayed in the company, and he was president
of the company after his father died. He was
chairman of the board. He passed away from
cancer. He used to go to lunch with Max Schmidt[Jr.]
Ben Schmidt, Harry Heppert, Ernie Wuthmann, Sr.,
and myself. This all goes back about ten or
twelve years. We d go every Monday.

Teiser: Harry. . . ?

Diedrichs: Harry Heppert was foreman of the transfer room.

Teiser: What was Richard Schmidt, Jr. like? Was he an
affable sort of man?

Diedrichs: Oh yes, very. For a good many years down there
he was purchasing agent. His dad finally took
him in the office. And he had a desk in his
father s office, old man Max Schmidt. When the
old man got called, Richard Schmidt, Jr. took
his father s place. His sister was married-
Mrs. Wuthmann.

Teiser: Then Richard Schmidt Sr. , what was he like?

Diedrichs: He was Max s brother.

Teiser: Did you know him?

Diedri chs : Oh, wel 1 .

Teiser: What kind of a man was he?

88

Diedrichs: A wonderful man. Here he is.

Teiser: Yes. In the pictures he looks quite stern.

Diedrichs: He was very quiet. When I was down in the press
room you could tell the time of day by when he d
make his round. He d go through that whole plant
every day. And you knew just what time Richard
Schmidt was coming through the plant.

Teiser: What was his duty?

Diedrichs: He was vice-president. He used to sell a lot of
big companies, contracts and one thing and
another.

Teiser: Did Max Schmidt go through the plant too, each
day?

Diedrichs: Not as often, no. No, he stayed in the office
most of the time. Occasionally he d go through
the plant.

Teiser: Max Schmidt, Sr. must have been a kind of a
joker, was he?

Diedrichs: Yes, he d kid everybody. But he d kid you in a

way--in other words he d say what an easy job you
had, but at the same time he d want you to be
doing something.

Teiser: Someone said that there were a certain number of
people in the company who really weren t working
very hard. Is that right? Or did everyone seem
to you to be working hard?

89
Diedrichs: They all had their jobs to do. There is

another this is number 4--that s Max Schmidt,

Mr. Hueter, Chickering.
Teiser: Here s 5. These, I guess, are all people within

the company, aren t they?
Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: "Mr. Rahsskopff, General Superintendent." What

did he do? What was he like?
Diedrichs: He was head of all the equipment. He was head

of the machine shop. Any new equipment, any

repai rs .

Teiser: Was he a good mechanic?

Diedrichs: Yes. I mean he never worked, he just supervised.
Teiser: Did he understand machinery?
Diedrichs: Oh, yes. From my understanding he was a watch

maker or something.
Teiser: What did Mr. Schoof do?
Diedrichs: He was a great friend of the old man s, and they

worked him in there on a job. I don t know what

he really did, but he was around the office quite

a bit.
Teiser: That s what I think I mean about Mr. Max Schmidt

sometimes inviting his friends to be employees,

and they didn t always work very hard. Is that

right?

90

Diedrichs: That might be one of the reasons. [Laughter]
Teiser: Is that true, though, that sometimes he gave

people jobs, and he was just being kind to them

and didn t want them to work so hard?
Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: Page 6.
Diedrichs: I know this fellow. It s Louis Brune. He s the

brother of Fred Brune.
Teiser: The fellow to the right.

This is page 7.

Diedrichs: This is Miss Cardoza.
Teiser: To the left.
Diedrichs: She married Richard Schmidt, Jr., the son of

Max Schmidt.
Teiser: He is sitting to the right of a desk at the right

[looking at the camera].
Diedrichs: And this is Carl Schmidt.
Teiser: Behind him at the right of the other desk.
Diedrichs: Yes. He s Richard Schmidt s son. And this is

Richard Schmidt.
Teiser: Richard Schmidt is sitting at the desk with

Richard Schmidt, Jr.
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: And who is sitting at the desk with Carl Schmidt?
Diedrichs: Mr. Schoof. [Gerhard Schoof]

91
Teiser: Was Miss Cardoza*a relative of Tony Cardoza,

the bookbinder?

Diedrichs: No. She had a brother who worked down there.
In fact, her father worked on the stones. He
was a stone grinder. They gave him a job up
there grinding stones. There s a lot of help
here that I remember, but I can t think of their
names .

Teiser: Here s page 8. Office, east side.

Diedrichs: I know this fellow here. He was Bill Reed.

Teiser: The man at the desk, just behind the woman at
the front desk.

Diedrichs: He was a salesman. Turned out to be one of their
best salesmen at one time.

Teiser: Page 9. Office, south side, sketching department.

Diedrichs: I could guess at some of these names, but I
want to be sure about them.

Teiser: Page 10.

Diedrichs: This is the chemical department. And this is
Doc Jaggard that I spoke to you about.

Teiser: To the right.

Diedrichs: He started the ink department, in the present form
that it was before they sold. And Jack Galvin
was the guy who ran the ink department.

Teiser: Did he start it when you returned from Oakland?
After the fire?

Correctly "Cardozo."

*Before the merger with Stecher-Traung Lithograph Co

92
Diedrichs: Yes, oh yes. After the fire. And 1t developed

into quite an ink room.
Teiser: Page 11. That s everybody. That s the new

building, isn t it?
Diedrichs: Yes. There may be a million in there. That is

after the fire.
Teiser: Page 12, artist department. That s in the new

building too, isn t it?
Diedrichs : Yes , it is .

Teiser: Where was that, with light on both sides?
Diedrichs: It was next to the office down there. I know

all of these fellows, but I can t think of

their names. The fellow with the cigar in his

mouth, Row is his name.
Teiser: He s got a hat on?
Diedrichs: Yes. That guy worked all day--cigar in his

mouth; he never lit it. He had a cigar in his

mouth all day long.
Teiser: Page 13.

Diedrichs: It describes it here--engravi ng department.
Teiser: Oh yes, metal engraving.
Diedrichs: This is the foreman, Mr. Iken.
Teiser: Fellow standing. . .
Diedrichs: With the moustache.
Teiser: Page 14.

93

Diedrichs: Here he is again.
Teiser: He s the man to the right.

What did the metal engraving department engrave?

Plates for . . .?
Diedrichs: For the blocks.

Teiser: Page 15. "Transfer Department, looking East."
Diedrichs: There, you see, I could name you a lot of these

fellows. This is Dick Bailey, with the moustache.
Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: And this fellow s name is Miller.
Teiser: In the foreground.
Diedrichs: And here s Dick Heinrich.
Teiser: He s over there second from the left.
Diedrichs: And here s Joe Dickman.
Teiser: Dick Heinrich has overalls on and is standing

with his hand on his hip. And Joe Dickman. . .
Diedrichs: He s taking the stone out of the case. See, he s

got the stone there.
Teiser: Yes.

Here s page 16.
Diedrichs: That s part of the transfer room also. This is

Joe Dickman again.
Teiser: He has on a ...
Diedrichs: Necktie and an apron.
Teiser: And he s standing with one arm raised behind another

man with a necktie and an apron.

94

Diedrichs: That s Charlie Martin behind him. The fellow
with the moustache there. His name is Axel
Soderwall. That s his brother, not the foreman.

Teiser: Oh, the other was Gus?

Diedrichs: Gus Soderwall, yes. I know all these guys. I

can t just say their names right out. Of course,
this fellow here, again, with the hand roller-
see he s got his hand on a roller there.

Teiser: Roller in one hand and his other hand on his
hip?

Diedrichs: Yes. That s Dick Heinrich. This is Miller again.
He s a ... I told you in the other picture.

Teiser: His head is right in front of the pillar in the
center.

Diedrichs: Caldwell, that s Caldwell.

Teiser: The man second from the left.

Diedrichs: Yes. Caldwell. He s the fellow I was trying to
remember.

Teiser: Page 17. That s the transfer department.

Diedrichs: This is the stone grinding that I think I showed
you in the other [Mutual Label album]. See,
there s the stone grinding machine. And here s
this Mike Warren again.

Teiser: Oh, he s got a moustache and a tie on? Far right?

Diedrichs: Yes. And the fellow way in the back here is Jack

95

Oledrichs: Armstrong. Well, I wouldn t bother with that.
But I m sure of this guy, Mike Warren.

Teiser: Page 18. Aluminum plate department.

Diedrichs: This is what they used to grain the plates on.
We call these plate-graining machines. They d
put this plate in this trough here and clamp it
down there tight and they d throw sand and pumice
stone in on there and mix with water. And they d
have marbles, just like the kids play with, some
were steel and some were regular marbles. This
press would start a rotary motion like that, and
all these marbles would move around and take the
work off and grain the plate. After they were
through with the plate and they didn t want to
save it for any reason they d put them in here.
Then they d process it after that, and it would
be ready to be transferred.

Teiser: For re-use.

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: How thick were those plates? How often could
they use them?

Diedrichs: They were twenty thousandths of an inch, twenty
and twenty-five thousandths of an inch.

Teiser: That thin!

96
Diedrichs: Oh yes. Wait! Pardon me . Twenty-gauge plate,

not thousandths. I m sorry. And this is Mr.

Caldwell again.

Teiser: The man to the left.
Teiser: Nineteen then. Book bindery. Lots of girls.

Twenty. Book bindery again, and more girls.
Diedrichs: More girls, yes.
Teiser: You certainly had a lot of pretty girls in that

pi ant.

Diedrichs: At that time they had them.
Teiser: Twenty-one.

Diedrichs: Job printing.
Teiser: Ah yes. Those were little job presses, weren t

they?

Diedrichs: Well, they were platen presses, see.
Teiser: Page 22 is the carton department.
Diedrichs: They die-cut these sheets on these machines for

the box department. They d run them through and

die cut them. As they d come out they d have to

run them through a gluing machine after, you know.
Teiser: Why?
Diedrichs: To make up the box.
Teiser: I see.

Diedrichs: Those are raisin cartons. They did a lot of those
Teiser: Page 23. Carton department.

97

*

Diedrichs: I think we ve seen most of those. Box depart
ment, carton cutting and scoring, flat presses.

Here s the foreman, Ed Pierce.
Teiser: Oh, with the cap on and the moustache, second

from right.

Diedrichs: Yes. Here s Charlie Tofanelli.
Teiser: To the far right.
Diedrichs: Yes. He became foreman of that department years

after Mr. . .
Teiser: What is this in the left foreground? Are those

dies on the top of that stand?
Diedrichs: Yes. They d have to make them up. Those were

dies that they d make up for this platen press,

to cut out the cartons.

Teiser: Twenty-four. Carton Department.
Diedrichs: Folding, gluing machines. They ran them through

these gluing machines.

Teiser: That thing to the left is a gluing machine?
Diedrichs: Yes. After they were all die-cut and everything

Here s Mr. Pierce again, the foreman of the

department.
Teiser: Ah yes, in the cap and moustache, second from

right.

Diedrichs: Yes.
Teiser: Page 25.

*

In the Mutual Label Litho. Co. 1903 Photograph
Al bum.

98

Diedrichs: Factory office. This is Oscar Heath.
Teiser: Standing in the foreground?
Diedrichs: Yes. Mr. Rahsskopff in back.
Teiser: At the desk.
Diedrichs: And it looks to me like Max, but I wouldn t

swear to it.
Teiser: I think that he said that was he himself, Max,

Jr.

Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: At the desk to the left.

Twenty-six. Shipping office.
Diedrichs: Mr. Hartmann.
Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: He had charge of the shipping office.
Teiser: Did he always wear a derby?
Diedrichs: Yes, always.
Teiser: Twenty-seven.
Diedrichs: Here he is again.
Teiser: Oh yes, he is second from the right. Who is

that fellow who looks like a western sheriff, on

the right?
Diedrichs: This guy? His name was Mr. James. He had

charge of the door there. The shipping office

was right next to the entrance on Bryant Street.

And Mr. James had charge of everything that came

in and went out down there.

99

Teiser: Twenty-eight, offset press department.
Diedrichs: These are offset presses that were put in right

after the fire, in the new building. This Is

Andy Hynes.

Teiser: To the right.
Diedrichs: He was foreman at the time.
Teiser: Is that Mr. Rahsskopff next to him?
Diedrichs: Mr. Rahsskopff, yes.
Teiser: Second from right.
Diedrichs: Here s Chris Vanderveen.
Teiser: On the left end.
Diedrichs: Yes. And Bill Mullens.
Teiser: Second from left.
Diedrichs: He was a roller maker down there. And Richard

Schmi dt .

Teiser: Third from left, to the front.
Diedrichs: Yes. Then back there is Vic Olsen.
Teiser: Right behind Richard Schmidt.
Diedrichs: The little fat fellow there is Scotty Jackson.
Teiser: With his left hand up on the equipment. One

hand holding a lever of some sort and the other

hand up.

Diedrichs: Yes. And the fellow standing in back of him--
Teiser: To the right.

Diedrichs: Yes, to the right--his name was Durham. And

Mr. Rahsskopff and Mr. Hynes.

100

Teiser: What kind of offset presses were they?

Di edri chs : Harri s .

Teiser: Single-color?

Diedrichs: That s a single-color, that s right.

Teiser: Page 29.

Diedrichs: Now these are three- and two-color aluminum

presses. They were direct printing, not off
set. This was a three-color.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: This is George Simonson. He was a pressman on
that press.

Teiser: He s in the center.

Diedrichs: Yes. And here was Andy Hynes. He was the fore
man .

Teiser: Third from right, with the overalls and the white
shirt.

Diedrichs: In back of him was George Bastain. He was a
pressman.

Teiser: To the upper right?

Diedrichs: Yes. Up here on the press. Up here is Louis
Traung .

Teiser: Oh yes, in the shirt, and with a vest on.

Diedrichs: He always wore a vest.

Teiser: Did he stand up there like that all the time, or
just while he was having his picture taken?

101

Diedrichs: While he was having his picture taken. [Laughter]
Teiser: Page 30. Single-color aluminum press.
Diedrichs: Yes. Well, these are direct, not offset presses.

Of course, this is Mr. Rahsskopff again.
Teiser: To the left. Is this Richard Schmidt just to

the right of him?
Diedrichs: That s right. The pressman has a cap on. That

was Frank Schmidt.
Teiser: Was he any relation?
Diedrichs: No, no relation.

Teiser: He s against the third pillar from the left.
Diedrichs: Here s George Bastain again. He was a pressman

at that press.

Teiser: He s in the lower right.

Diedrichs: The others are just helpers.

Teiser: Thirty-one. Single-color aluminum presses again.

Diedrichs: These are the presses after the fire. They re

all single-color aluminum rotary presses. This

is the press that I ran at the time.
Teiser: Oh, you re the man in the foreground to the

left the first man to the left?
Diedrichs: Yes. Here s Louis Traung and Richard Schmidt,

Billy Bergk.
Teiser: Louis Traung is with the tie and the vest, in

about center. Who is the other fellow with the

102

Telser: tie and vest, to his left. Next to the pillar?

Diedrichs: He was just a feeder.

Teiser: BillyBergkis between Louis Traung and Richard
Schmidt .

Diedrichs: Here s Frank Schmidt again.

Teiser: Oh, to the far right, last man over on the right.

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: Did he spell his name the same way as the other
Schmidts?

Diedrichs: S-c-h-m-i -d-t .

Teiser: Page 32.

Diedrichs: "Offset presses in distance." This is the

bronzing room. For a while they used to have
all these bronze machines enclosed in a room, I
told you, like that, so that the bronze wouldn t
fly around. There s a Chinaman, they used to
have Chinamen feeding the sheets in. The boys
would take the printed sheets from the pressroom
and bring them into here, and the Chinaman would
feed them and they would come out down here.

Teiser: Page 33.

Diedrichs: Here are two-color and single-color Miehle

presses, looking south. This is George Winberg.-

Teiser: Second from the left.

Diedrichs: He was running the feeder on that press. He later

103
Diedrichs: became foreman of that department. Here is

Louis Traung of the litho press department.

And George Hildebrand; he had charge of the

block department.
Teiser: I see. These are standing in the foreground,

toward the right.
Diedrichs: Yes, and these are all Miehle presses. That s

a two-color Miehle press. And here s Andy

Nelson, the pressman.
Teiser: Second from the right.
Diedrichs: He s the man that had his arm taken off. And

if you look closely at these, you can see that

they are all salmon labels, that I was telling

you about.
Teiser: Oh, yes!

Page 34.
Diedrichs: Pressroom, center aisle. These are Miehle presses

here again. Here s George Hildebrand again, the

foreman.
Teiser: He s in the center with a piece of paper in his

hand.

Diedrichs: And here is Andy Nelson.
Teiser: To the right of Hildebrand.
Diedrichs: He s the pressman on that two-color press. These

all are, on each side of the aisle.

104

Teiser: Miehles on both sides of the aisle?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: This is an automatic feeder, isn t it?

Diedrichs: That s right. They had all automatic feeders

after the fire.
Teiser: Thirty-five.

Diedrichs: North side of general pressroom. Here s Mr.

Hildebrand again.

Teiser: In the center foreground, leaning on the press.

Diedrichs: Yes. Here s Joe Reyes; he s a pressman on that

press .

Teiser: Just to the left of Mr. Hildebrand.
Diedrichs: Yes. I don t know the next man. Now there s a

Miehle press with a bronzer attached, see?
Teiser: Oh yes. To the distant left.
Diedrichs: You see, it s coming up here and gone down this

way.

Teiser: Thirty-six.

Diedrichs: General pressroom. And these are type presses.

That s Mr. Hildebrand again.
Teiser: Mr. Hildebrand is the first man to the right?

Diedrichs: Yes. This is the brother-in-law of Charlie

*
Traung, Charlie Farrell.

Teiser: Charlie Farrell is the fellow in the foreground,

with the moustache. Did he go to work with the

*
See also p. 77 .

105

Teiser: Traungs after they established their own com
pany, or did he stay at Schmidt?

Diedrichs: He was an apprentice.

Teiser: He stayed at Schmidt?

Diedri chs : Yes .

Teiser: Thirty-seven.

Diedrichs: These are cylinder presses. Embossing department
Here s Mr. Rahsskopff again.

Teiser: Little cap and goatee.

Diedrichs: Can t miss him. This fellow here

Teiser: Third from the right.

Diedrichs: He was deaf and dumb. He used to work in the

embossing department. He used to feed one of the
embossing machines and later on became a pressman
on an embossing machine.

Teiser: Thirty-eight. Embossing department again.

Diedrichs: These are platen presses. Mostly all embossing.

Teiser: Thirty-nine.

Diedrichs: Now here is the electrical department. Here is
Max Schmidt, Ben s*brother.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: He had charge of the electric room, at that time.

Tieser: He was a good-looking fellow, wasn t he?

f
Max A. Schmidt, brother of Bernhard H. Schmidt.

106

Diedrichs: He s a good-looking man yet, and he s seventy-
si x years old.
Teiser: I haven t met him. Well, you ve all stood up

pretty wel 1 .

Diedrichs: He s in wonderful shape.
Teiser: Page 40.
Diedrichs: This is the boiler room. That s Mr. Hancock,

Bob Hancock, he had charge of the boiler room.
Teiser: To the left.

Page 41 .
Diedrichs: This is the machine shop. Mr. Rahsskopff.

This is Joe Wesphal , and this is Clarence Beach.
Teiser: Let s see, Joe Wesphal is. . .
Diedrichs: Sitting down there.
Teiser: Fourth from the left, sitting.
Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: And Clarence Beach is....
Diedrichs: Right in back of him.
Teiser: Back and to the right of him.
Diedrichs: Yes. They both became foremen of that department,

in later years. This is one of the mechanics.

His name was Joe Crowley. I remembered his name.
Teiser: Fourth from the right.

Paae 42.

107
Diedrichs: Looking west, electrotyping . That s something

like the picture I showed you before [in the 1903

album]. They used to do their own electrotyping.

Here s the foreman.

Teiser: To the far right, foreground.
Diedrichs: Yes. His name was Ny
Teiser: Forty-three.
Diedrichs: Electrotyping department again. This is Mr. Ny

again, the foreman.
Teiser: Third from the right.
Diedrichs: Yes, in the center there.
Teiser: He looks like a casual sort.
Diedrichs: Yes, it was a dirty job, out there.
Teiser: Forty-four.
Diedrichs: Paper seasoning department. This is Bill Lampe

[pronounced Lam pee]. He had charge of the

seasoning of paper. Now, see, this paper is all

being seasoned, hung.

Teiser: Forty-five. Box making and carpentry shop.
Diedrichs: As I say, they used to make boxes to deliver

labels in. They made the boxes up there.
Teiser: Forty-six.
Diedrichs: Cutting department. This fellow s name is

Siebert. I was trying to think of his name before
Teiser: With a little bow tie on, and the moustache.

108

Diedrichs: Louis Siebert. He was the foreman of that

department. He later committed suicide. He
was a great friend of the old man s.

Teiser: Forty-seven.

Diedrichs: Die-cutting department. This is Henry Hageman
again. We saw him on the other pages.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: I don t know who the others are.

Teiser: This is 48.

Diedrichs: And the varnish room again. Here s Henry Hageman
again. He had charge of that.

Teiser: To the left?

Diedrichs: Yes. Here s where the varnish sheets came down
here and up here and through all this dry pro
cessing.

Teiser: Oh, an oven.

Diedrichs: That s right. That s in later years.

Teiser: I see. So they didn t have to hang them on those
racks any move.
Forty-nine.

Diedrichs: Looking north, corrugated paper. They started a
corrugating department in the old building, that
is the building we moved into after the fire.
This was on the third floor. As this department
developed, it was moved across the street to

109

Diedrichs: building number two, like you ve seen the new
building over across the street. Andy Nelson
had charge of that, the man who had his arm
taken off he had charge of the department
until he retired.

Teiser: Fifty. Corrugated paper department. That s a
cutter in the center there?

Diedrichs: It s for stamping them out, you know, die cutting.
It s a die cut .

Teiser: Is that a gluing machine to the left?

Diedrichs: That s what it looks like, yes. And John Munson.

Teiser: Here s page 51.

Diedrichs: Northside, corrugated paper department. This is
the corrugated paper machine. They used to run
the paper through there and corrugate it, and glue
it.

Teiser: Did the same machine both corrugate and glue?

Diedrichs: Yes. The paper would go through and it would be
corrugated and glued at the same time.

Teiser: Now I ll ask you about these if I may. I don t
think I showed you this one. I ll read the
numbers on them. This is number 52. This is just
for our record keeping, so this will be keyed to
them. Do you recognize when this was, or what the
occasion was?

Separate Schmidt Lithograph Company photographs.

no

Diedrichs: Yes, this was at the time of the war, in 1945
or whatever i t was .

Teiser: Or 18, 1918, do you think?

Diedrichs: They were wearing those dresses to protect them
selves around the presses. She was a press
feeder, and they couldn t wear skirts.

Teiser: Oh, is that right?

Diedrichs: Yes. This is the main pressroom, the aisle.
Here s the skylight I was telling you about.
That s the middle aisle of the pressroom. They
were taking donations for the benefit of the war
at that time. And I can tell you pretty near
everyone in the picture.

Teiser: Who s the woman in the center there?

Diedrichs: I know her, but I don t know her name. The
gentleman that s here is Vic Olsen.

Teiser: The man standing out in front?

Diedrichs: Yes. That s myself right here.

Teiser: Oh, you re right under that sheaf of light.

Diedrichs: You see, the light is going right through.

Teiser: Yes. You have your sleeves rolled up. And you
have on overalls over your shirt. It must have
been the First World War.

Diedrichs: That s right. This is Joe WesDhal. He was
foreman of the machine shop.

Ill

Teiser: He s with the hat on, just to your left.
Diedrichs: Yes. Here s George Simonsen. He was a press
man down there.

Teiser: He s to the left of him.
Diedrichs: This is Frank Schmidt.

Teiser: That s the bald fellow, second from the left.
Diedrichs: Yes. He was a pressman down there.
Teiser: He was the Schmidt who was no relation?
Diedrichs: That s right. I know all these fellows. That s

Dick Heinrich. He was a transferer.
Teiser: Oh yes, the fellow all the way to the left

edge. Who s the fellow with the eyeshade on in

the center?

Diedrichs: Possnecke his name was. [Poss-necR-ee]
Teiser: And this was a rally to raise money, was it?
Diedrichs: That s right. And this bald-headed man, I think

his name was Louderdale. He was foreman of the

job department.

Teiser: He s right behind Mr. Olsen s hand.
Diedrichs: This fellow up here is Arty Hartman. He was a

type pressman. With the overalls.
Teiser: Just to the right of this hanging lamp, the lamp

hanging against a post.
Diedrichs: This fellow here with the hat on is Bergk, Billy

Bergk. He was a pressman.

112

Teiser: Just below Hartman.
Diedrichs: Next to him is Joe Reyes.

Teiser: To his right, with the shirt sleeves rolled up.
Diedrichs: Yes. This is Dick Bailey.
Teiser: To the right of Joe Reyes.
Diedrichs: That s right. And just looking over his head is

Fred Muriset. He was a pressman. This boy

worked for me but I can t think of his name--

oh, Bolls, that s right.
Teiser: Where is he?
Diedrichs: Next to Mr. Muriset.
Teiser: I see, to the right of Mr. Muriset.
Diedrichs: Yes. Next to him is Mr. Winberg.
Teiser: To the right of him.

Diedrichs: He later became foreman of the department.
Teiser: Of the pressroom?

Diedrichs: Of the printing pressroom. This is Jack Barnes.
Teiser: Next to him, to the right.
Diedrichs: He ran the embossing department at that time.

Next is John Munson.

Teiser: You can just hardly see him over somebody.
Diedrichs: That s right. This is George Hart.
Teiser: Second from the right.
Diedrichs: You can see him looking up. He was a pressman.

Right in front of him was Mr. Ben Schmidt. In the

vest.

113

Teiser: In the vest and striped shirt.

Diedrichs: That s right. And this fellow with the shade

on is Mr. Iken. You know we spoke of him in an
other picture.

Teiser: This is the group of plant pictures that I told
you about. I have numbered them all. Here s
112, "Section of the Artist Department."

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: About when was that?

Diedrichs: Oh, I couldn t tell you the year. Gee, if I

only had time to think of some of these I could
think of the names. That s Max Schmidt here.

Teiser: Second from the left. Which Max? "German Max"--
Max Schmidt, Jr.?

Diedrichs: German Max, yes. This is Charlie Lindecker, the
man standing up there.

Teiser: Standing next to the desk, in the right half of
the picture.

And here is "Battery of Harris two-color offset
presses," 112-B.

Diedrichs: That s right. Yes, those were two-color presses
that were put in--it could have been around 20,
somewhere around in there, yes. There were three
of them in a row there, I m pretty sure.

Teiser: This again is the artist department. This is
number 110.

114
Diedrichs: The main one in the picture is Max Schmidt, Jr.

agai n .
Teiser: He s to the right, the man standing to the right.

And here s 109, which is the litho pressroom.
Diedrichs: I couldn t tell you the exact year. But I can

tell you some of the men in the picture.
Teiser: Fine.
Diedrichs: This is Vic Olsen.
Teiser: On the left.
Diedrichs: The next one is Ben Schmidt. This is Arthur

Evans .

Teiser: Next to him.
Diedrichs: He was a pressman at that time. He later had a

business of his own.
Teiser: What are these presses?
Diedrichs: All Harris.
Teiser: Number 108. I don t know if there s much to be

said about the carton gluing machines.
Diedrichs: Well, that s in the box department.
Teiser: Are these cartons, these in the foreground to the

right, on the table?
Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: That s what they were working on?
Diedrichs: You see, they re all cut out. They re die-cut,

and then they re folded and glued. They go

through a folding machine, and are glued.

115

Telser: Would they use that many people in that department
today?

Diedrichs: Oh yes. It all depends on the size of the plant.
I guess they did the largest raisin carton busi
ness on the coast here for a good many years.
And here s the foreman again, Mr. Pierce.

Teiser: Oh, with the great moustache and the cap?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: Second from the right.

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: Let s see. I m leafing through some of these

that Mr. Ben Schmidt has identified pretty thor
oughly. This is a fascinating little picture.
This is 74--of apparently Max Schmidt s original
press, Max Senior s.

Diedrichs: Yes. It s an old-style hand press.

Teiser: Was it ever intended for production?

Diedrichs: Well, yes, production at that timeone impression
at a time.

Teiser: How big a sheet would that handle? I can t tell
the scale.

Diedrichs: That s only a 22-inch sheet. That s all.

Teiser: Here s a pressroom one, 71. "Second lithographing
pressroom. . .Thi s company does a large proportion
of seed bags . "

116

Diedrichs: Those were all seed bags. I was telling you

about the Schonings. When the company brought
over the Galloway Lithograph Company, they came
over and set up their presses on the third
floor over there in the new building, the one
across the street.

Teiser: Yes. And this is their pressroom?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: The one that the Schonings ran?

Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: What presses were those?

Diedrichs: Those were Harris single-color presses. Later on
we had two or three four-color presses over there,
after I got to be superintendent. Why I had
charge of that department after that. All but the
seed bag. Herbert Schoning ran the seed bag
department.

Teiser: Here s picture 70.

Diedrichs: This is the new press that they installed down
at. . . just before I left, a year or so before
I left. That s a new two-color press. This is
Max Schmidt, Jr.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: Beside him is Morton Schmidt. And this is Carl
Schmidt. And I know this gentleman s name, but

117

Diedrichs: I can t think of it right now. And that s
mysel f .

Teiser: That s what I thought. This is from left to
right. This was on the installation of a
new two-color, was that it?

Diedrichs: I believe it was.

Teiser: Maybe the man standing up on top there was some
body who represented the press company?

Diedrichs: He was with the Harris Company, es . The gentle
man s name was Mr. Willis, I think. He s standing
on the platform.

Teiser: Here s picture number 57. Is that the same press?

Diedrichs: I m pretty sure it is. At any rate, it s a two-
color offset press. Here s the assistant. The
feeder is Mike Maloney, up here.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: Standing up. And this is a Harris mechanic.
I can t think of his name now.

Teiser: To the right of him.

Diedrichs: And this is Urvan Pack. He was tne pressman.

Teiser: To the right side. Let me ask you what this is...
numbered 103.

Diedrichs: From what I hearthis is a picture of Main Street,
the shop down on Main Street. Here s all the
presses, and they had a balcony going around in
the storeroom.

118

Telser: This was before you knew the company?
Diedrichs: Before the fire, and before I went with the

company, down on Main Street. They are all

stone presses.

Teiser: And this one, 92, this looks like a later one.
Diedrichs: Yes. This is the present pressroom, right now.
Teiser: In the main building or the new building?
Diedrichs: In the main building, not the new building.

And this is a Harris press with a bronzer attached
Teiser: This is in the left part of the picture.
Diedrichs: The sheets going here through the bronzer, there.

This is the bronzer.

Teiser: The bronzer is off to the left edge.
Diedrichs: The pressman is standing on top. His name is

Clarence Hughes. And this is the foreman at

the time, Vic Olsen, standing there.
Teiser: Standing to the right.
Diedrichs: Right in back of that is another Harris press

with the bronzer attached. Those two presses

are on the main aisle down there.
Teiser: I see. That s the press to the right of the

picture.

This is picture 72. It s dated 1920.

Diedrichs: Yes, I know all these fellows. That s Ed Ander
son; he s a pressman.

119

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: Next to him is ... I forget his first name,
but his name is Bowles. Next to him is Fat
Millard. And next to him is Ed Pierce, Jr., son
of the foreman of the box department.

Teiser: What is that, a two-color?

Diedrichs: Yes. Sitting up there on the two-color press.
Ed Anderson ran the press.

Teiser: This is 75, the ink-making department. That s
a fairly recent one too, I guess.

Diedrichs: Yes, it is. This is after the ink department was
pretty well established. That s just a section
of the ink department.

Teiser: What are those machines running down the aisle?

Diedrichs: Those were where they grind the ink. As I told
you, they used to buy the powders and varnishes,
say, yellow, or red, or dark blue, or whatever it
was. They had a mixing machine where they mixed
the powder and the varnish together in these
tubs. Then they d have to run it through this
ink mill. They had three or four of them, and
there were more in the other part. And this 1s
the foreman I was speaking to you about.

Teiser: He s the man in the white shirt and the overalls.

Diedrichs: Under the lamp.

120
Telser: Standing against the lighted lamp, against a

pillar. What did the finished ink come out in?

This sort of tub?
Diedrichs: Yes, they put a tub. Here he s taking out the

mixed powder. It s like a lot of dough.
Teiser: This is the man in the center.
Diedrichs: He puts it in here and it goes between rollers

that squeeze it. They run it through this ink

mill, sometimes twice. It comes out in the tub

back here. It s all in ink form.
Teiser: Are these tubs to the lower left? Is that the

kind of tub it would come out in?
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: They had handles for carrying them around.
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: How were they transported around the plant?
Diedrichs: On little dollies. There s one of them right here.
Teiser: Oh, I see, to the left center.
Diedrichs: Just lift them up on that and roll them around.
Teiser: Oh, yes, four wheels on them. Back here is a

little higher one.
Diedrichs: They used to put these tubs on top of that dolly

to make it handy to feed the ink mill.
Teiser: This is picture 76. Let me ask you about this.

This must have been one of the many celebrations.

What was the event?

121

Diedrichs: I have no idea. I can t think of that now.

That s all up in the office. I wouldn t know
offhand just what that s all about.

Teiser: There were a good many festivities were there,
at Schmidt Lithograph?

Diedrichs: A picnic every year. We had what they called a
Social Society. It explained in that book*
what the Social Society was. It went on to tell
you what benefits they gave us.

Teiser: The people who belonged to the society paid a
little dues?

Diedrichs: They paid $.75 and the firm paid $.75. We used
to get sick benefits and doctor care.

Teiser: Doctor care!

Diedrichs: That s right. The working members in the plant--
those are the people that got sick benefits and
doctor care. But office help belonged to the
Social Society, but just as social members. I
believe they got doctor care, but no sick benefits

Teiser: This was not written into your union contract the
way i t i s now, was i t?

Diedrichs: Oh no.

Teiser: This was a company. . .

Diedrichs: Company affair.

*
Dedication of Plant No. Two.

122

Teiser: Did you get good doctor care?

Diedrichs: Had a steady doctor.

Teiser: Was there a company doctor?

Diedrichs: Company doctor. Dr. Olsen his name was. He was
the son of a foreman down there, name of Vic
Olsen. He started to work down in the shop as
a boy down there and went to Cal ; became a doctor

Teiser: Did he keep hours in the plant?

Diedrichs: No. He had an office. But everyone in the

Schmidt Lithograph Company went to see Dr. Olsen
when anything was wrong with him, and really got
Dr. Olsen started in his business. They d tell
their friends about Dr. Olsen, and built up his
clientele. He s still in business.

Teiser: Do you still go to him?

Diedrichs: No.

Teiser: Suppose you got in the hospital. Did it pay
your hospital costs?

Diedrichs: I think you got sick benefits for a certain
length of time.

Teiser: In lieu of your salary?

Diedrichs: That s right. You d get so much a week for the
length of time you were off, and that lasted so
many weeks or so many months. It s so far away,
I don t remember.

123

Teiser: This is the sort of thing the unions later

demanded, isn t it?

Diedrichs: That s right. We had that all prior to that.

Teiser: When you got to the supervisory level, did you

still have those benefits?

Diedrichs: While you were in the factory.

Teiser: Anyone who was in production?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: There were a lot of pictures of parties, in

which there apparently were elaborate decorations
and signs and everything. Were those just for
the men?

Diedrichs: No, the whole plant. You d sign up if you wanted
to go. They d have them in the cafeteria, or
once a year they d have a big event in the big
Native Sons Hall, or something like that, big
affair, dancing and all.

Teiser: Who paid for that?

Diedrichs: Well, I can t remember how that was taken care of
The Social Society paid for most of it. Some
times the plant would go in.

Teiser: There were some pictures that looked as if they

were stags.

Diedrichs: That was all salesmen s conventions every year.

They d call all the salesmen in from all the out
lying offices, all through the East and Honolulu.

124
Diedrichs: They d be here for maybe a week, two weeks, hold

their meetings in the afternoon and they d go

out to dinner at night. Whole bunch of salesman.

The company took care of the tab.
Teiser: Did any of the men from the plant go with them?

Were you involved in that, for instance.
Diedrichs: Well, the salesmen had their regular dinners after

their meetings. Then they d have a big dinner for

the salesmen and the men from the plant the heads

of the departments were asked. They must have a

lot of pictures of that.

Teiser: This is 113. This must have been World War I.
Diedrichs: Yes. We all had to wear masks there at that time.
Teiser: Did you wear them to work in?
Diedrichs: Absolutely.
Teiser: What were these people doing? They re making

masks, maybe. . . sewing them?
Diedrichs: They could be sewing them. You were compelled to

wear masks all the time. This is Ben Schmidt here
Teiser: Standing up, to the left.
Diedrichs: That s right, that s Ben.
Teiser: This is January 12, 1925. This is number 114. I

wanted to ask you to identify people in it, but

is this one of the dinners you were speaking of?
Diedrichs: That s right, that s one of the dinners; you see,

they all got their names on all the cards.

125

Teiser: These are salesmen and supervisory personnel?

Diedrichs: That s right. Men from the pressroom and from

the transfer room, from the shipping room, the

cutting room and the varnish room, carpenter shop
Teiser: Where do you think this was held?

Diedrichs: Let s see. . . It was a very prominent place

at that time. There s my picture right there.
Teiser: Oh, there you are. Let s see. You re behind

Jack .

Diedrichs: That s Jack Barnes. That s Bill Bray, the fore
man of the bindery. This was Metzger.
Teiser: Adrien Metzger.

Diedrichs: That s right. This is Joe Wesphal , foreman of

the machine shop. There s Louis Brune.
Teiser: He has on a stiff collar and you can just see

the "L" on his badge.
Diedrichs: He was in the office.
Teiser: Who was Charlie, here?

Diedrichs: Charlie Bowen, he was a salesman.
Teiser: This is the Charlie to the left. There s another

Charlie over here just to the right center. Who

was he?
Diedrichs: He was an outside salesman. I wouldn t know him.

There s Ben Schmidt back there.

126
Teiser: Oh, I see. He has "Ben" on his tag. He has

glasses. Your badge is hidden there, isn t it?
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: Is this Max Schmidt at the head of the table?
Diedrichs: Just a minute. That s Richard Schmidt. Max

Schmidt is right over there. Can you see him

there?
Teiser: Oh, yes. He s third to the left of Richard

Schmidt.

Here is an October 1920 "house warming." This

is picture number 115.
Diedrichs: This was taken in the building, upstairs in the

cafeteria, on the fifth floor.
Teiser: What were they warming?
Diedrichs: I can t just think of the occasion. Just another

of those parties.

Teiser: The fellow with the white goatee?
Diedrichs: That s Mr. Rahsskopff.
Teiser: The first time I ve seen him without a cap on.

He s the first man on the left, with a white

goatee and moustache. Next to him is a lady.

Who is she, Mrs. Max?
Diedrichs: No, I don t believe so. I couldn t say who it is.

I m not sure; I wouldn t want to say.
Teiser: Who is the gentleman whose arm she has her hand on?

127

D i e d r i c h s :

Tei ser:
Diedrichs :
Tei ser:
Diedrichs :

Teiser:
Diedrichs :

Teiser:
Diedrichs:
Tei ser:
Diedrichs :

Tei ser:

Diedri chs :
Teiser:
Diedrichs :

Tei ser:
Diedrichs:

That s Mr. Max Schmidt. There s Mr. Richard
over here again.
Wi th a whi te ribbon on .
That s right.

And this must be a bust of Mr. Max Schmidt.
That s right. I could tell you a couple more.
This is Mr. Lindecker, in back of Mr. Richard.
Just behind, with a big, stiff white color on.
That s right. He had charge of the art depart
ment.

This is number 116.
That was a salesmen s party.
January 1930.

You see, they were all men there. I can identify
some of them if you d like to know some of them.
Yes. The man with the goatee here and the
glasses, holding a glass.
That s Mr. Richard Schmidt.
He s three to the left of the center pillar.
Yes. And the man with his head almost next to
him is Bill Reed. He was a pressman.
The man looking down, just to the left of
Richard Schmidt?

Yes. Then to the left of him, again, is Mr.
Richard Schmidt, Max Schmidt Senior s son.

128
Teiser: Which one? This one? The one with his head

way down, kind of bald on top?

Diedrichs: That s right. And here s Mr. Max Schmidt, Sr.
Teiser: Just to the right of the pillar, yes.
Diedrichs: And this gentleman here is Bill Bookey.
Teiser: [In the center] Shaking something. What s he

shaking?
Diedrichs: I don t know what he s doing.

Here s Carl Schmidt.

Teiser: He s four from the right end.
Diedrichs: I am right here.
Teiser: Oh, there you are. There s not much of you

showi ng.
Diedrichs: I m right behind the big fat guy, the top of his

head. I m looking over his head, almost.
Teiser: Where was this held?
Diedrichs: This was held down in the shop on the fifth floor

They had a special bar made up there just for the

occasion. There s a big bar there; you can t

see it.
Teiser: There s another. This is 117. What in the world

was that event, in which someone was queen of

somethi ng?

Diedrichs: They crowned a queen that time.
Teiser: The queen of what?

129
Diedrichs: I don t know whether it was the Social Society

or some similar event. It was in Native Sons

Hall, I believe. Yes, Native Sons Hall.
Teiser: Who was the queen? Do you recognize her?
Diedrichs: Yes, I know her. In fact, I believe she s down

there yet. Louise Something. I can t think of

her last name. That stuck to her for all these

years. They still talk about the queen.
Teiser: Oh, is that right? [Laughter]
Diedrichs: Yes, the queen. You can see some mob there,

can t you. There s Mr. Max Schmidt there.
Teiser: With the paper hat on?
Diedrichs: That s right.
Teiser: [Laughter] In profile, with his arm on a man s

shoulder. And this is Mr. Richard Schmidt,

isn t it?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: To the right of the queen, in three-quarter view.
Diedrichs: There were picnics every year.
Teiser: Where were the picnics held?
Diedrichs: For a while, the first ones were held over in

Alameda. What was that park over there?
Teiser: Neptune Beach?
Diedrichs: Neptune Beach. They had several over there. Then

they used to go down to Mission San Jose. Do you

130

Diedrichs: know that park down there?
Tei ser : No, I don t .
Diedri chs : [Cal Is] Mom!
Mrs. D.: What?
Diedrichs: What s that park down at Mission San Jose we used

to have our picnics at?

Mrs. D.: It could have been called Warm Springs.
Diedrichs: Do you remember this picture? [Number 117]

Remember, that was up 1n Native Sons Hall?
Mrs. D.: Yes. We sat up there, I think, up in the balcony.

Didn t we?
Diedrichs: Yes.
Teiser: Who was the queen?

Diedrichs: Louise--! don t know what her last name was.
Mrs. D.: I don t know her last name either. She isn t so

young today, but she wasn t a bad looking girl.
Teiser: This is 119. That s that bar you were mentioning,

isn t it? [In connection with photograph number

116].

Diedrichs: Yes. There s Mr. Max Schmidt.
Teiser: In the dark suit, third from left.
Diedrichs: Here s Herb Cardozo.
Teiser: Fifth from the left.
Diedrichs: Next to him is Mr. Richard Schmidt [sixth from

the left]. And he s a salesman; I can t think of

131

Diedrichs: his name. There s Jack Barnes and John Munson.
Teiser: In the foreground, to the right.
Diedrichs: They were the guys that were part of the Social

Society.
Teiser: Jack Barnes is second from the right, and Munson

is just on the edge there?
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: This is number 120, January 15, 1930.
Diedrichs: That was the entrance to the bar.

Teiser: My word! They did it up elaborately, didn t they?
Diedrichs: Yes.

Teiser: Here s a color picture, 121. Louis Traung.
Diedrichs: Yes. That s Louis, all right. I learned the

trade under Louis Traung.
Teiser: He was always, later, a good friend of the Schmidt

Lithograph Company?

Diedrichs: Oh, yes, they were very friendly.
Teiser: Although they were rivals for business?
Diedrichs: Oh, yes, absolutely.
Teiser: Here are 140, 141, and 139. Do you think these

are at one of the picnics?
Diedrichs: Could have been. Yes, it could have been the

races. You know, they had races and everything.

It could have been one of the picnics. See, they re

running around here. That s what they are, the

132

Diedrlchs: races at the picnic.

Teiser: They had some for girls and some for men, I
guess .

Diedrichs: That s right. Then at the picnics you could

invite your family or your friends, you know, pay
a little extra for their ticket. But they had
gate prizes just for the employees. They had
very nice gate prizes. Some were money, and
hams and bacon and all that stuff. They put on
a big time .

Teiser: This is 138.

Diedrichs: That s "Stew" Norris.

Teiser: To the left.

Diedrichs: Here s a Harris erector [center]. I can t think
of his name now. And that s myself there, right.
We were celebrating something. You see, we ve
all got a glass in our hands.

Teiser: Yes. This is 131. Must be the same event.

Diedrichs: Carl Schmidt is making a speech there. This is
Carl Schmidt.

Teiser: To the right.

Diedrichs: This is Norris again, here.

Teiser: To the far left, lower corner.

Diedrichs: Yes. And this fellow in here is Morton Schmidt,
you know.

133
Diedrichs: You can just see his head there. Yes, these

are all . . .1 believe that was some celebration

in the pressroom.
Teiser: This is number 134. I expect you recognize

these people.

Diedrichs: That s Ben Schmidt again, here.
Teiser: To the left.
Diedrichs: And this is a Harris salesman. I can t think of

his name. And myself.

Teiser: You re naming them from left to right.
Diedrichs: Over on the end is Mike Maloney.
Teiser: The fellow standing at the right end.
Diedrichs: I can t think of the other fellows names. They

all worked for me, but I can t think of their

names .
Teiser: Here s one that goes back a little further. It s

number 147.
Diedrichs: Yes. It s taken in the office. Ben could tell

you more about it. The only ones I know in

there are Carl Schmidt and Mr. Schoof.
Teiser: Carl Schmidt is to the right and Mr. Schoof is

standing just behind him?
Diedrichs: Yes.
Teiser: This is 149. In the center is Mr. Max Schmidt.

Do you recognize either of the other men?

134
Mrs. D.: Do you want to see a couple more old ones?

[photographs] .

Telser: Oh, you ve got some. . .
Mrs. D.: These are the ones in the pressroom. There

was I. There s my sister.
Teiser: What beautiful hats you have on! Are you in

that, or just your wife and her sister?
Diedrichs: My wife and her sister, and. . . no, I m not in

it. Those were all girl feeders down there.

He was a feeder too. He was a feeder. He was

a feeder, Bi 1 1 Brune .
Teiser: The girls were a little outnumbered a few more

men than girls.
Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: And here s another of your pictures.
Diedrichs: That s a recent one.
Teiser: Is this your whole pressroom crew?
Diedrichs: Yes. Here I am on the end. This is Bill Doyle

This fellow s name is Schubkagel . Here s Bob

Schmid. Every one of these fellows was in the

pressroom.

Teiser: And here s an old Chinese fellow.
Diedrichs: Yes.
Teiser: What was he?
Diedrichs: He used to work on the bronze machines.

135

Teiser: That late they continued to have Chinese on
the bronze machines?

Diedrichs: Well, they had the Chinamen that take care of
the old bronze, they sift the old bronze. On
some jobs we d use part old bronze and part new.
Some of the jobs wouldn t take a brand new bronze
because the condition of the ink wasn t dry enough,
and the bronze would take all over instead of
just where the work was. So when you put old
bronze mixed with it, it didn t have that effect.

Teiser: I see.

Mrs. D.: Here s a couple other ones. This was 1949. And
this is you. February 15, 1949.

Teiser: This was a luncheon group.

Mrs. D.: It must have been an anniversary or. . .

Diedrichs: It was a party for somebody. That s right,
somebody retiring.

Diedrichs: There s Mr. Norris. It was over in North Beach.

Mrs. D.: Tivoli or something?

Diedrichs: Bill Doyle. Bobby Schmid. Fat Anderson. My
self.

Teiser: This is another one of your pictures. You re
looking at a sheet of labels.

Diedrichs: Labels, yes.

Photographs belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Diedrichs.

136
Telser: Let s not get your pictures mixed up. I ll put

them aside and go back to these I have with me.

This is 150. Must be another one of those

picni cs .
Diedrichs: See, it was a race. They had to run here and

put something in the box there and run back with

something. That was how that worked.

Teiser: Here s 151. Is this Mr. Schoof in the foreground?
Diedrichs: That s right, Mr. Schoof. His son worked down

there too. He was a school professor, I believe,

at one time.

Teiser: What did he do in the company?
Diedrichs: Oh, he was a great friend of the old man, Max,

and had a job down there in the office. I don t

know just what it was.
Teiser: This is 152.
Diedrichs: That looks like Mr. Iken.
Teiser: Who was he?
Diedrichs: He was an engraver, I believe, and he had charge

of the engraving room down there.
Teiser: This is 153 and there s a memorandum that says

"Here s a picture of the Lustour Plant enlarged

from Otto Schoning s snapshot." What s that?
Diedrichs: I don t know it. There s a saying there [on the

memorandum] that old man Max got up: "Write it.

Don t say I told you so. "

137
Diedrichs: Whenever you d make an excuse about anything,

"Always write it down and you can t go wrong."

"Don t say I told you so. Write it."
Teiser: Whose signature is that on that memorandum?
Diedrichs: That s Richard Schmidt.
Teiser: Who s G. Taylor on the list?
Diedrichs: George Taylor; he was treasurer down there at

one time.

Teiser: And what was Wuthman Senior? What was his job?
Diedrichs: Toward the end he had Mr. Rahsskopff s job.

Before that he had charge of the corrugated

department in building no. 2.
Teiser: What did Lorenz Schmidt do?
Diedrichs: He was head of the salesmen. He later became

president.

Teiser: What did Verne Bonetti do?
Diedrichs: He was an accountant down there. Harry Anderson,

he was the purchasing agent.
Teiser: And B. Hammon?
Diedrichs: Hammon was an accountant.
Teiser: P. Crain?
Diedrichs: He was personnel.
Teiser: And B. Dixon?
Diedrichs: He was a salesman?
Teiser: Guy Street?

138

Diedrichs: He was a salesman.

Telser: I thought he was an artist too, wasn t he, or
a designer or something?

Diedrichs: He designed too, that s right.

Teiser: B. H. Schmidt.

Diedrichs: Ben Schmidt.

Teiser: N. Hamilton?

Diedrichs: Norman Hamilton, he worked under Ben Schmidt.

Teiser: E. Wuthmann, Jr. What did he do?

Diedrichs: That was Senior s son. In recent years he took
over Max Schmidt s job, after Max retired.

Teiser: In the factory office?

Diedrichs: Head of the plate making and artists and all that.

Teiser: The job that Max Schmidt had had earlier?

Diedrichs: That s right. Ben had charge of the factory

office. Max had charge of all the platemaking
and all the art work. He okayed color sheets for
the pressman. In general he was . . .

Teiser: On top of production?

Diedrichs: That s right.

Teiser: R. Duerson?

Diedrichs: Duerson, he was a salesman.

Teiser: . S. Norris. What did Stewart Norris do?

Diedrichs: He finally took over Ben Schmidt s job. He worked
under Ben Schmidt.

Max Schmidt, Jr.

139

Teiser: And Dolly somebody.

Diedrichs: Dolly, Dolly, Dolly--she was a secretary.
Teiser: It looks like "Ohls."
Diedrichs: She was Morton Schmidt s secretary.
Teiser: These we ve gone over are all people on this

1953 memo attached to photograph number 153.
Diedrichs: Any memos or any letters or anything that had to

go around the plant, they d check off the ones

who were to see it.

Teiser: Then the men initialed them after they d seen it?
Diedrichs: That s right.

140

Bernhard H. Schmidt, referred to among members
of the Schmidt family and firm as Ben, was born in 1884 in
San Francisco. The son of Richard Schmidt and the nephew of
Max Schmidt, he was one of the generation that he referred
to in his interview as "the juniors." Following graduation
from the Lick School of Mechanical Arts, he went to sea
briefly before going to work at the Schmidt Lithograph
Company in 1905. He became superintendent first of the
lithograph department, then of the entire plant. His title
was "factory superintendent" at the time of his retirement
in 1959.

The following interview was given at the San
Anselmo home of Bernhard H. Schmidt on May 25, June 1, and
June 13, 1967. Little editing was done by the interviewer,
and no changes but a few name additions were made by Mr.
Schmi dt .

141

BERNHARD H. SCHMIDT

The Family and the Company

Telser: May I begin by asking you when and where you
were born?

B. H. Schmidt: I was born on March 14, 1884, in San Fran
cisco, on Sacramento Street, next door to a
Chinese laundry.

Teiser: And your father had come. . .?

B. H. Schmidt: He came, I couldn t say when. I wouldn t know.
I was going to say 79, was it? He was Richard
Schmidt, Max Schmidt s brother. Mr. Max had
started the business and he got so busy he
wanted some help, so he got my father. And
later on he got his brother-in-law, Mr. Rahss-
kopff. Have you ever heard of Mr. Rahsskopff?

Teiser: Mr. Max Schmidt, Jr., mentioned him.

B. H. Schmidt: Carl Rahsskopff. He was a mechanic around the
factory at the time. Of course, I didn t. . .
well, I graduated from Lick School in 1905,
and I went to sea for a couple of months. Then
I went to get a job in the Schmidt Lithograph
Company, in 1905. That was about six months,
or a year before the fire.

Teiser: What was your first job there?

142

B. H. Schmidt: Shipping department. Then the fire came,

and I was driving a truck over in Oakland for
the Schmidt Lithograph Company. We moved
there and stayed there for two years.

Teiser: You lived and worked there?

B. H. Schmidt: No, we lived in San Rafael, but commuted back
and forth to Oakland every day.

Teiser: Was a plant set up there, a manufacturing
plant?

B. H. Schmidt: There was the Wempe Brothers paper box plant.

*
You ll find it in the book there. We bought

that out. Wempe stayed on one floor, and we

had the other three.
Teiser: How could you adapt paper box machinery to use

in 1 abel printi ng?
B.H. Schmidt: We had the paper box plant before, over in the

city, and we just stayed with it.
Teiser: Did you do some label printing too, there in

Oakland?
B. H. Schmidt: Oh yes, labels and paper boxes, called cartons.

We finally got into posters, 24 sheet posters.
Teiser: In Oakland?
B. H. Schmidt: No, wel 1 ...

Teiser: When you came back to San Francisco?
B. H. Schmidt: Yes. In the meantime we had built the plant

i

Elford, Eddy, The Log of a Cabin Boy, privately
printed, San Francisco, 1922.

143

B. H. Schmidt: at Second and Bryant Street, rebuilt it.

The one that was dynamited [at the time of
the earthquake and fire].

Teiser: Were you there when it was dynamited?

B. H. Schmidt: I was the last man out of the factory. You
see, they dynamited our building to save the
St. Mary s Hospital, which was a wooden build
ing two blocks below. They tried to save that
from the fire, but everything went, you know.

Teiser: Were you able to get anything out of the
building?

B. H. Schmidt: No, not very much. We didn t know where to
store it.

Teiser: Did you get papers or anything of the sort?

B. H. Schmidt: Well, I think they got the office papers, but
that s about all. Nobody came to work that
morning except my father and my uncle. They
stayed there and ate my lunch. Then they went
to Mill Valley. My father went to San Rafael;
he lived in San Rafael. I stayed out right
at 614 Sacramento Street. That s where I was
born. Stayed there for two weeks until the
fire was out. Then we went down to the factory
and tried to dig up what we could.

Teiser: Could you recover anything from the ruins of
it?

144
B. H. Schmidt: Not too much, no. If they hadn t dynamited

we might have saved more.
Teiser: No equipment?

B. H. Schmidt: No. No, it was pretty well gutted.
Teiser: Were you there when they dynamited?
B. H. Schmidt: No, we were told to get out.
Teiser: You didn t stay around and watch?
B. H. Schmidt: No.
Teiser: It must have been a terrible blow to your Uncle

Max and your father too.
B. H. Schmidt: Yes. Terrible blow to all of us. Because we

were all interested in the business, you know.
Teiser: May I ask you about your family? Your

brothers are. . . ?
B. H. Schmidt: Carl Schmidt and Max A. Schmidt. You know,

there are two Max Schmidts: Max A., my

oldest brother, and Max H. who came in from

Germany.

Teiser: Yes. Max H. is "German Max?"
B. H. Schmidt: German Max, yes.

Teiser: Your brother Carl is younger or older than you?
B. H. Schmidt: He s two years older than I am.
Teiser: I see. You re the youngest.
B. H. Schmidt: Yes.
Teiser: Do you have any sisters?

145
B. H. Schmidt: I had a twin sister, but she didn t live

very long.
Teiser: I see. Then Max Schmidt Senior s children

were . . . ?
B. H. Schmidt: Richard Schmidt and Mathilda Schmidt, Wuthmann

now. He had one more, Emile Schmidt, but he

was mentally wrong and didn t live very long.
Teiser: And then German Max?
B. H. Schmidt: He was adopted by my uncle.
Teiser: I see. Let me go over these same people and

ask you what their functions in the business

were. Your older brother, Max?
B. H. Schmidt: My older brother Max was an electrician and

mechanical superintendent of the plant.

Brother Carl was in the sales end of it. He

was sales manager and was president of the

company for a while.
Teiser: Then your cousin Max?
B. H. Schmidt: He went in as a ... oh, sort of in the art

department, and in what we call the transfer

department, and that end of the business,

making plates for the presses.
Teiser: And your cousin Richard?
B. H. Schmidt: He was the secretary of the company for years.

Then he was vice-president, and president,

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B. H. Schmidt: before my brother was president.

Teiser: And then Mr. Wuthmann was. . .?

B. H. Schmidt: He married Mathilda Schmidt.

Teiser: And he was an official of the company?

B. H. Schmidt: Yes. I think he was a director when he

retired. But he was in charge of the cor
rugated department. I worked in that for
qui te a whi 1e .

Teiser: I see. There were a lot of you.

B. H. Schmidt: Well, there were five Schmidts, you might

say [in the second generation]. We used to
meet every Monday and have dinner together,
and lunch together and talk business. We had
our own cafeteria, and we used to eat there.

Teiser: Then you decided business matters together
there?

B. H. Schmidt: Yes.

Teiser: Who had the last word?

B. H. Schmidt: That s hard to say among Germans. Oh, I don t
know, I guess Mr. Richard Schmidt, Jr. and
Brother Carl, they used to fight it out.

Teiser: When Max Schmidt, Senior, was alive did he
control things very closely?

B. H. Schmidt: Yes, he did. He was quite an executive.

Teiser: If you objected to something, did he listen to
you?

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Oh, yes, yes. He d have his arguments and
we d have ours. We got along pretty good
though .

Did he ever do what you wanted instead of what
he wanted?

Well , it s hard to say.

Can you explain where the Mutual Label and
Lithograph Company fits into the picture?
Let s see. There was the Schmidt Lithograph
Company. They consolidated with Di ckman-Jones
and H. S. Crocker.* Well, there were the
three companies, and they called it the Mutual
Did H. S. Crocker merge only a part of its
business?

Yes. They kept their stationery business.
Was Schmidt Lithograph Company s entire print
ing plant put into Mutual?

It was the same company, only it changed its
name . That 1 sail.

I see. How did it get separated then, again?
Oh, I couldn t say. I don t know. They dis
solved somehow or other. They, after that,

The date of this consolidation is given as
1899 in Since I856 f a brief chronology of the
H. S. Crocker Company compiled by Frederick E.
Keast and privately published by the H. S.
Crocker Company in 1944.

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became the Schmidt Lithograph Company.

Then H. S. Crocker went into its own printing

and 1 i thographi ng?

They went into their own business again.

What happened to Di ckman-Jones?

It dissolved; it disappeared.

Was Max Schmidt head of Mutual Label and

Lithograph Company?

He was head of it at the time, yes.

Who represented Crocker in the organization?

I couldn t say. I wasn t in on that top stuff,

I was working in shipping, and that was it.

I finally got into the plant as superintendent

of the lithograph department. And I finally

got the whole business.

You were superintendent of the whole plant?

Yes. Factory superintendent they call it.

What year did you become superintendent of

the lithograph department?

Oh, I don t know. Maybe ten years after I

started, something like that.

Then when did you become superintendent of the

whole plant?

That was sort of automatic. There was no

special date set for it. I just worked into

it. Nobody wanted it, I guess.

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Somebody must have thought you could do it.
Well, it was quite interesting.
It must have been a great responsibility.
Yes. You had to be on the job all the time.
Did you move through the plant constantly?
I walked seven miles a day. I had one of these
pocket speedometers and I figured it out one
time. I walked about seven miles. Up and
down, over and across. You see, we had two
buildings, with a connecting bridge. And it
kept you going .

They were both three-story buildings?
No, the other one was a four-story building.
At that time we bought out the Galloway Litho
graph Company and took over their seed bag
division. They used to make seed bags, you
know.

That was how you got into the seed bag
business?
Yes.

The block on which the company s building stood
in San Francisco. . .

It was a residence originally. It was a
private residence. Here is a picture of it in
The Log of a Cabin Boy.

Following page 22.

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Oh yes. 1899. And the Schmidt Lithograph
Company building was built in 1900, on the
whole block, according to this.
Yes.

Where was the seed bag company?
They were on Folsom Street at the time. When
we bought them out they moved Into our build
ing, across the street.

Before 1899 there was another location, wasn t
there?
23 Main Street.

Lithography and Letterpress Techniques

Teiser: During your years in production, were there

many changes in equipment?

B. H. Schmidt: No, other than improvements in the presses.

We bought more presses, and they printed more
colors at one time. Years ago they only used
to print two colors at a time. Then they made
it three, and they made it four, made it five.
I guess now it s maybe six colors at one time,
one operation.

Teiser: Were you there early enough to get into stone

1 i thography?

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Oh yes, yes. We had that before we had what
we call aluminum presses, that had aluminum
plates. Stones were the first thing, litho
graph stones.

About when did you get out of the stone litho
graphy operation?

Oh, I couldn t say. But still after the fire
we were lithographing from stone.
The size of the stones was limited, was it not?
Yes, but some of the bigger stones were 28
by 42.
That large!

Yes. But not too many of them. The little ones
were used as originals. The original copy was
on the small ones, then we pulled impressions
off of that and made it onto the big stones.
It was repeated?

Yes. Like letterheads. There were always
four on a sheet.

Did you use them for labels that way?
Yes. Only a little bit, because it was too
slow an operation. The stone presses were
very slow, they had to come back and forth,
back and forth, for every impression. When they
got the other presses, the rotary presses, it
was much quicker.

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After the fire you ordered all new equipment?
We had to replace a lot of it, yes.
Did you save any of the old stone presses?
Well, we rebuilt some, yes.
Were the aluminum presses offset or direct
1 ithography?

That was direct. Offset came in later. Off
set means to print from one plate to a blanket,
then to a sheet.

But the aluminum presses printed directly?
Yes.

Is the image raised or is it sunk?
It s etched in.

Then there were big changes, really, in litho
graphy.

Well, yes. It kept improving. Now they do
a lot with the camera. They photograph right
on the plate. No more hand work.
Was there much letterpress printing in the
plant?

We had our own department for letterpress
printing. We printed from electrotypes. In
fact, we had our own electrotype department.
We made our own electrotypes. We did quite a
little of that because at that time we used to

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print Sano labels and we printed the Ligget
and Meyers tobacco wrapper. We had to deliver
a mi 1 1 ion a day .
Was that for cigarettes?

Cigarette package wrappers , yes . It was the
old Chesterfield brand. They were done from
a letterpress.

When did you print labels by lithography and
when by letterpress?
Both at the same time.
How did you decide which?

It all depended. Sano labels were usually a
red background we printed from type, from
electrotypes. But, then, after a while we did
lithographing and didn t do any more printing.
You did some commercial work too? Some general
commercial printing?

A little, not too much. Mostly lithograph
commercial printing on a lithograph press.
Your letterpress was mainly, in the days before
offset lithography, devoted to labels?
Yes.

What kind of letterpresses did you have?
They called them Miehle, Miehle presses. We
had two-color and single-color, one color and
two color.

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Did you run those labels in very large sheets?
Yes, they ran pretty good sheets. Roughly
about 44 by 64. Good sized sheets.
You said you went into 24-sheet posters.
About when was that?

Oh, quite a while ago. I don t know how we
got into that. I think it was right after the
fire. We used to make what you called one,
two-sheet posters, and finally got into the
big boards on the highway, 24-sheet posters.
You see them all around now.
What did they use to transfer the image?
A camera, a reproducing camera.
What kind of presses were the posters printed
on?

They were printed on these aluminum presses,
as they call them, on big plates.
Was the major part of the work labels though?
The major part, yes, I d say so. Of course,
we did a lot of cartons, raisin cartons, things
like that.
Little boxes?
Yes.

Not corrugated?

Corrugated too. These raisin boxes, they were
made out of regular cardboard, 24-point

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cardboard. Regular raisin board we called it.
What kind of presses were used for those?
They were printed on lithograph presses.
Also on printing presses. Some jobs we could
put either way, it didn t make any difference.
What size sheets were they on?
They were about 40 by 60 s, something like
that. It all depended on how many, if the
order was for one million or ten million, or
whatever i t was .

You must have had a big warehouse.
We did. We had quite a big warehouse. But
now, say this Ligget and Meyers, Chesterfield,
that went out daily, so we didn t have too much
warehousing there. They just took them away.
They [Ligget and Meyers] were right down at
Third and Townsend [streets].
What about your paper stock? Did you season
your paper?

Yes, and we coated our own paper. We bought
the paper in rolls and put a coating on it
and ran it through a calendaring machine and
made it nice and shiny.
And then sheeted it?

And then sheeted it. The girls had to sort it
and inspect it, and all that.

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I was amazed, when I was looking at the photo
graphs, at how many women worked in the plant.
We had quite a few. The bindery was one of
the big departments. And years ago we had hand
feeding machines; the girls had to do that too.
They had women press feeders?
Yes.

The bindery department was mainly cutting and
scoring, and so forth?

Well, bookbinding. We did a lot of checkbooks,
like checkbooks for Crocker First National, and
all those banks.
Catalogues?

A little bit, not too much. That was more of
a specialty of somebody else.
The seed bag business was interesting, wasn t
it?

Yes. That was quite a job. We made an awful
lot of different kinds of seed bags. Many,
many kinds.

Did you use the same stock cuts for various dif
ferent companies?

Well, yes. A lot of them; we just reprinted
the name on the bottom.
Printed the vignettes and then added the names?

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Whole sheets, yes. Die cut them, you know,
so that when they put them in the folding
machine they d come out as an envelope. Seed
bag envelopes we called them.
Were they lithographed?
Yes. Yes, we lithographed all that.
Would you ever lithograph, say, a lot of lettuce
vignettes, and then keep them on hand to re
print as orders came in?
No, we didn t do too much of that because
that was kind ofyou didn t know what the
people wanted. Oh, we had some; stock labels,
we called them. We used to make a lot of
tomato labels and reprint the names on those.
What about wine labels?
Wine labels we did quite a little too.
Did you have stock vignettes for those?
Well, we had some, yes. But lots of it was
privately made, for themselves.
Did you design them? Did you have an art
department?
Oh yes, we had our own sketching department.

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The Company and Its People
How many people, at the most, worked in the
company?

Oh, roughly about 500, four to five hundred.
And how many of those in production?
Maybe four hundred, say. A hundred were in
office and such work. We had quite a lot of
people. That included, of course, our branch
offices. We had a branch in Los Angeles, in
Chicago, New York, Seattle, Texas, Florida-
different places.
Those were sales offices?

Yes. And the plant in Honolulu; that was a
lithograph plant there too.
Was it established by Schmidt Lithograph or
was it bought from someone else?
It was a little outfit. I don t know how we
ever got into it. We called it the Honolulu
Lithograph Company; we didn t call it Schmidt
Lithograph .

About when did you get it?

I think it was after the fire. I don t remem
ber all these dates. We still own it. It s
still known as the Honolulu Lithograph Company,
subsidiary of the Schmidt Lithograph Company.

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That was your only other manufacturing plant?
Yes.

About how large an operation was that?
Oh, maybe they might have had about a hundred
people, fifty or a hundred.

Was there some connection between that and one
of the newspapers in Hawaii?

Well, indirectly. The manager of the Honolulu
Times-Star was a fellow named Paul Mcllree.
He finally got connected with us in the busi
ness. He is now retired, but he was our
representative down there.
When did you retire?

About six years ago. I was there fifty-five
years, I guess.

That s a wonderfully long career, isn t it?
Well, we stayed longer than we should have,
I guess. [laughter] They have started a
pension plan now.

Hadn t there been one before recently?
Not too much of a one, no.
Did all the members of the family have an
interest in the company? Did you all own some
stock?
Yes. My son was not interested in it. My

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daughter never worked there, but they finally
got some stock and kept that.
All of you who were in the business have a
little stock?

Oh yes. We had this little group of five
Schmidts. We called ourselves the Schmidt
Investment Company. [Laughter] My two
brothers and myself and two cousins, Richard
Schmidt, Jr. and Max H. Schmidt? We used to
pick up the stock where we could; if it was
lying around loose, we d pitch in and buy it
and divide it up into five pieces, and let it
go at that.

People outside the family owned it?
Oh yes, quite a few. We had maybe fifty,
sixty stockholders outside the company.
Were they friends and business associates?
Mostly that way, yes, mostly through friend
ship. It was never on the market.
It seemed to me that I heard something about
somebody coming from Germany at one time--maybe
it was Mr. Max Junior s brother, coming here
with some money and lending itbuying stock.
Max s brother. I don t know. He was quite
friendly with my uncle that was Kurt Schmidt.

Max Schmidt, Jr.

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He was in the paper business in Germany
That was what sort of got him connected out
here. But he didn t live here very long.
Max Schmidt Senior s brother-in-law, Mr.
Rahsskopff, was he a very inventive man?
He was very mechanical. He didn t really invent
things, but he made a lot of improvements on
machinery in the factory.
Had he been in the printing business?
No, he was in the watch business, clocks and
watches. He never knew anything about the
printing business, but he got into it very
quickly and was a good mechanic.
He was Max Schmidt Senior s generation?
Uncle Max s. He was the oldest of them all.
He was quite elderly.

It was a very close company, wasn t it?
More or less. And the relationship was close
too.

And the employees too were. . .
Yes, they had a lot of relatives in the com
pany. Did you see Mr. Herman Diedrichs?
I m going to .

He was in the lithograph division as superin
tendent of the printing plant. He was there

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for a long time. Practically the only job
he ever had in his life, I guess. His wife
was one of the press feeders and he fell in
love with her. [Laughter] A lot of that was
goi ng on a 1 1 the time .
I want to ask you about the women press
feeders: was there a transition that was
gradual from women to men in the pressroom?
When they did away with the feeding, when they
became [developed] automatic [mechanical]
feeders, why the women lost their work.
I see. There were still men who did some press
feeding after that, though, weren t there?
Oh yes, a few; apprentices and things like
that.

Then didn t feeding later become more a job
for apprentice pressmen?

Well, yes, but the girls only fed the presses
by hand; it was hand feeding.
And then they also did paper hanging?
They did the paper hanging, yes, and the sorting
and picking of the sheets out as they were
printed. They had to be inspected too.
What date did you retire, incidentally?
Gee, I don t know. . .19. . . That ll tell you.

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Oh, you ve got a watch. Inscribed "Presented
to Bernhard Schmidt 5/6/1905-1955, by the
employees of Schmidt Lithograph Co." Isn t
that a fine watch. That was presented to you
when you d been there fifty years.
Yes, I retired in 1959.

Were there women still doing some of the paper
sorting operations when you retired?
Oh yes, they did that right along.
I suppose that comes under bindery work?
Bindery work, yes, cutting and binding.
They no longer were hanging paper, though, were
they?

Yes, we had to hang sheets too.
Still, in the 1950 s?
Yes, they had to be seasoned.
Was that done by women, still?
No, not so much, no.
By men by then?
Yes.

There was another general question I had. I
wanted to try to place Schmidt Lithograph
Company in relation to other printing and
lithography companies, nationally. Were there
some in the East that were similar?

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Oh, yes.
What were they?
Stecher Company
In Rochester, New York?

In Rochester. Then there was the--oh, gee,
in Boston there was a big lithograph company.
Was there one in Baltimore?
Oh, yes, a lot in Baltimore too. Baltimore
was quite a lithograph city. I can t think
of the names right now.

Did Schmidt Lithograph Company have equipment
or do things in any way that was very much in
advance of any other similar company in the
c o u n t ry ?

No, they were all about the same. They all
kept it going about the same.
I think that these pictures of the Schmidt
Lithograph Company will be of interest, par
ticularly because Schmidt must have been quite
typical of a group of large printing and litho
graphing firms of its period.
Oh, yes. There were quite a few. Schmidt
was only the tops of all of them, I guess.
In size, and quality, and everything else.
Was it the top, or was it one of, say, three
or four, or what?

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One of three or four. The Stecher Company
I remember, and Rochester Lithograph Company.
I can t think of them.

Each of them, I suppose, had its own indiv
idual modifications. I think you said that
Mr. Rahsskopff had made some modifications
of equipment at Schmidt.

He was quite a mechanic, yes. He did a lot
of things around there that nobody else could
do. Mechanically he was very brainy.
Did he make modifications of equipment that
were unique to that plant?
Well, in a way, yes. But I can t think
just what he specialized on.

Mutual Label & Litho. Co.

1903 Photograph Album

Mrs. Stewart Morris gave me two albums and a
number of single photographs for the Bancroft
Library. I ll show them to you and ask you to
identify the people and equipment in them.
Okay.

This album is lettered on the cover: "Mutual
Label and Litho Co., San Francisco, Cal .
Christmas, 1903." It belonged to Mr. Rahsskopbb.
It s got his name in it and the date "Aug. 1905."
I numbered the pages. Here s page 1.

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That s the original building. It was dyna
mited and blown up, destroyed in the [1906]
fire.

That was at Bryant. . .?

Second and Bryant. This is Second Street.
Second Street on the left, and Bryant on the
right. Page 2.

Those are the directors. That s my father,
Mr. Richard Schmidt.

He s second from left. Is this Mr. Rahsskopff,
at the left end?

That s Mr. Rahsskopff. That s Mr. Max Schmidt.
On the right end?

Yes. Mr. Henry Wehr. He was secretary.
Second from right.

And that was Mr. Jones. He was a vice-president
also.

Third from right. Did he come in during that
Mutual Label and Lithographic Company consol
idation?
Yes.

This is page 3.
That was Mr. Max here.
With his cap on [second from left].
Yes. That s Frank Gamble.

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In the foreground.

Yes. That was my father, I guess [right of

center pillar]. And that s the secretary.

Is that in the office?

It s in the office, yes. This is all down

in this original building.

Yes. I guess everything in this book is.

All before the fire.

Page 4.

That s just another picture of the office.

Page 5.

That s my father.

At the right?

Yes. That s Mr. Max H. Schmidt [Max Schmidt,

Junior] . . .

Next to him [second from right].

Mr. Rahsskopff. . .

Next to him [third from right].

That s Oscar Heath.

To the left [left end] .

And that s Jake Zellerbach.*

With the derby?

Yes. He was selling paper.

Do you know who he is, sitting there [third

from left]?

*

See also comments of Max Schmidt, Jr. and Herman
Diedrichs on this photograph.

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Page 6.

It s hard to tell these fellows, but they were

all artists.

This was the art department?

Art department, yes.

Page 7.

This was the paper stock department. We used

to have to lay the sheets out in trays, get the

air into them.

Is that what that girl is doing?

Yes, she is putting them in and traying them

and all that.

Page 8.

This is the bookbinding.*

What are those wheels?

That s a saw, rotary saw.

Here s page 9.

There s your lithograph stones. That s the

machine we used to polish them.

The round thing?

Yes.

What department was that?

We called that the lithograph department.

Plate graining.

*

See also comments of Max Schmidt, Jr. and Herman
Diedrichs on this photograph.

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Page 10.

That s the same thing. That s quite a big

stone there.

What s it on?

It s on a handpress. We put it through and

then it d pull an impression.

You didn t use this press for production?

No, not this one. This was only for getting

impressi ons .

Page 1 1 .

That s the same thing. This is where we made

the plates and put them on big plates.

And these are stones again, aren t they?

Yes.

You didn t make aluminum plates there?

No, not here. These were all stone.

Page 12.

Same thing, only around the corner.

Page 13.

Same thing. There are some pretty big stones.

Page 14.

That was a small lithograph press. That s a

girl feeding [at left]. That was a small offset

press [right].*

See also description of this photograph in
interview of Herman Diedrichs.

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Page 15.

Those are printing presses.
Miehles?

I guess they were Miehles, yes. They would
run through and back.
Page 16.

Now here we come to the bigger presses.
Aluminum presses we called them. Just the
plate was aluminum. We had a pretty good-
sized sheet there, see?
Yes. About how big is it?
About 40 by 60.
Page 17.

Lithograph stone presses. There s one of our
posters .

In the background. Oh, yes. Two of them.
Page 18.

Same, stone presses.

Do you recognize the man in the suit [right]?
Yes, my father. He was very methodical. They
always knew when he was coming around. Then
they d start working. [Chuckle] So methodical
you could set the clock by him.
Page 19.

That s the aluminum plate. It s fastened on a
cyl inder.

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Page 20.

Stone presses.

Page 21

Stone presses, see them?

Oh, yes. Page 22.

That s what they call the cutting and creasing

presses; you know, for cutting cardboard and

cartons. The presses go up and down like that.

A whole row of them?

Yes, a whole row.

Page 23.

*
Stone presses too.

Page 24.

Same thing.

Page 25.

This is the cutting department. See, there are

the cutting machines.

Yes, to the left.

You d have to square the sheets up and cut them

very exactly, to fit the cans and things.

Page 26.

That s where the girls used to do what we

called squaring the sheets, so that we could

cut them. They had to be all square. They

couldn t be crooked.

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You cut them in stacks?

Yes.

Are those dies on the wall?

Yes, those are different steel dies.

Did you do much die cutting of labels?

Yes, yes. Quite a little.

Where was the die cutting press then?

Pretty close to here.

Here s page 27.

There s the machinery.

Are those die cutting presses?

Yes.

Page 28 is. . . ?

This is the gluing machines. There s a glue

pot there. We had a girl who folded the sheet

over and ran it through.

What did you use gluing machines for?

Gluing the cartons together, you know.

Oh, I see.

Old-time foreman. His name s Pierce.

With the moustache there?

Yes.

Page 29.

This looks as if it might be the machine shop

or something. Oh no, this is where we made the

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electrotypes. You can t see much of an

operation there, but that was it.

Page 30.

This is the machine shop. We did our own

repair work and things.

Page 31 .

That s the electrical.

The electrical department?

Yes. Motor room, generators.

Page 32.

That was part of the cutting department.

See, here s where the labels were all stacked

up.

Oh yes, to the right.

The girls would have to wrap them up in packages

of a thousand.

Oh, this is the way they delivered labels?

Yes.

Page 33 this is.

This was more or less the packing department,

I d say. You see, these were all stock labels

that we had here that were stored there. Well,

we called it packing but it was under the

shipping department.

Page 34.

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That was a varnish machine. It would var
nish the sheets. They would go up and go down
the track here and then come back on the tape
here; then we d take them off.
They were drying on those lines?
Yes, a hot box.

You varnished after you printed?
Yes. That was the last operation before we
cut them.
Page 35.

That s the gathering of the calendars. They d
pick them up as they went along.
Did the Schmidt Lithograph Company put out a
calendar every year?

Yes, but for other people too. This happened
to be our own, I think.
Page 36.

This is the ink department. We used to grind
our own inks .

Schmidt Lithograph Co.
1909 Photograph Album

This is the second album. It s stamped on the
cover "Schmidt Lithograph Co. Second and
Bryant Sts . San Francisco. 1909." It be
longed to Mr. Rahsskopff too. I have numbered

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the pages of it. It has some captions, but

anything you can add to them. . . This is

page 1 .

That s the building.

They were still using horse-drawn drays.

Yes, they used those for quite a while. I

guess it s the building after the fire. The

building before the fire had a skylight in

there. I don t know whether it shows in

there or not.

Page 2.

This is after the fire. We bought this lot

here. The tower building is in there [now].

What street is this?

Second Street.

Page 3 is. . .?

Same thing.

Is this canopy still there?

No. That s been torn down. The entrance is

down here further.

This is page 4.

This is the director s room. They re all in

here. That s Mr. Max, Mr. Chickering.

What had he to do with the company?

He was one of the directors.

He was an attorney, was he?

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Yes. Chickering and Gregory.
He was not in the management of the company?
No.

How did he happen to be a director, do you
know?

Oh, I don t know. I guess he was Mr. Max s
friend in the Commercial Club. And then Mr.
Moffitt of Blake, Moffitt and Towne. He was
in the paper business. And E. L. Hueter with
the Bass-Hueter Paint Co.

How did he happen to be on the board of direc
tors?

They were very close; my uncle and Mr. Hueter
were very close friends.
Your uncle Max?

Yes. They both lived in Mill Valley.
I. L. Borden; he was one of the directors.
He was not in the company management?
No. And my father. My cousin Dick.
Your cousin Dick was the one who later became
president of the company?
Yes.

And died some years ago?
Yes.*
Did he directly succeed your uncle as president?

March 7, 1958.

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I think he did, yes. I think he did. Then
my brother came in after.

Your brother Carl became president next?

*
Yes. Then his son, Lorenz Schmidt, became

the president after Carl Schmidt.
Here s page 5.

That s Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Rahsskopff, Mr.
Richard Schmidt, my father; these are the two
Traung brothers. Charlie Traung was manager
of the art department. Louie Traung was
manager of the printing department. Fred
Brune was an old-time bookkeeper.
Had he been with the company for many years?
Many years, yes. And Schoof--he was estimat
ing department.
Was he related to anybody?
No, just a German friend.
And Mr. Miller?

Louie Miller, he was secretary.
Was he also a regular member of the firm?
Yes, he was a director. Then he, after a
while, got his own Miller Lithograph Company.
So he left, and also the Traung brothers left
Yes.
What were the Traung brothers like?

Interview, Schmidt Lithograph Company,
Vol. II.

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Oh, they were well-liked. Personally I liked

Louie better than Charlie. I told you the

story about Louie coming to my uncle to get a

job. And he said, "Sure, go ahead, go to work."

The next day the brother came in, the twin

brother. He said, "I want a job." He said,

"I hired you yesterday. Go to work."

[Laughter]

What did they start out doing?

They were just fly boys and apprentices. They

learned the trade.

Was one of them more able than the other?

Yes, Louie, whom we all thought was the oldest.

[Chuckle] He had the brains.

I see. What did Charlie have?

He had a lot of hot air. [Laughter]

Was Louie a good mechanic?

Yes, he was a good mechanic.

Were they liked by your uncle?

Oh, yes. They were pretty well liked all

around .

Here s page 6. What office is this?

That s the main office.

Who are those men? Do you recognize any of them?

One might have been Mr. Schoof.

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The man with the moustache?

Fred Brune. That s all I know. They were

just office boys in there.

Here s a girl peeking out behind there.

It might have been Gussie Tanforan.

How do you spell her last name?

The same as the race track people. She was

related to them somehow.

Oh, I see. Was she the one who could swear

like a trooper?

Oh, yes, she was pretty good.

Page 7.

That s the main office. That s my uncle and

Mr. Miller.

Your uncle is in the foreground to the right.

Mr. Miller is directly behind him at the desk

My father.

Your father is third back.

Dick Schmidt.

Dick Schmidt is to the right of your father?

Yes. That s Mr. Schoof.

Mr. Schoof is fourth back.

And my brother Carl there.

Carl to his right.

And there s some of the office girls. That

is May Cardozo.

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May Cardozo is to the lower left.

She married this fellow. Richard Schmidt [Jr.],

Were there lots of marriages within the firm?

Not too many, no. There s Edna Maker.

She s at the typewriter, to the left.

Yes. She married a fellow named Black, Bill

Black, in the factory. I can t recognize any

more .

Here s page 8, east side of the office.

That s the other counter. See, there s Mr. Max

in there.

Oh, with the cap on, yes. Did Mr. Max often

wear a cap?

Yes, he always wore a cap. He and Mr. Rahsskopff

Mr. Rahsskopff wore a skull cap.

Why? Didn t he have any hair on his head?

Oh, just a matter of habit, I guess. That s

Bill Reed, I think.

At the second desk in the center there.

He married a girl from Oakland.

Here s page 9. Sketching department. What

did they do?

They designed the labels and made the sketches.

Just the roughs?

No, finished sketches. See, they had all those

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drawings up there. If a man wanted a tomato

label they d have to design it for him, or

colored lithograph of some kind.

Were they well-paid men?

Yes, very highly paid.

Page 10. Chemical laboratory. I didn t realize

you had one.

Oh, yes. That s Doc Jaggard. His name was

Jaggard. We called him "Doc" because he d take

care of the emergency accidents in the factory.

What was his regular duty?

He was a chemist.

What did he do?

Designed, or made up the inks, put in the right

materials for inks, adjusted the colors, and

all that.

Were there any things other than inks in the

laboratory?

Mostly inks.

Page 11. That s everybody.

That s myself in here.

At the right end of the front row.

Here, with the pocket, yes. That s my uncle

Max, my dad, and Mr. Rahsskopff, Mr. Andy Hynes .

Mr. Rahsskopff with the little hat in the group

at the right end of the second row. Your father

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with the long white moustache there?
That s my father.

Then to the left and a little behind is Mr.
Rahsskopff. To the left of him some one in
overalls. Then . . .
Mr. Max.

Then a little to the left, in the front tow,
with your hands in your pockets is you.
Yes. And the Traungs are in here.
The Traungs are behind you?

Yes. That s one of them. Over here is brother
Max, Henry Wehr, Fred Brune.

These are on the left, standing off toward the
rear.

And German MaxT These are all the bindery
girls in here. . .
In the front row.
Page 12, the artist department.
Those are all artists.

Are those the people who did the final render
ings after the sketches?

After the sketches were made, they separated
the colors and made the plates. They designed
the labels after the sketch artists would
give them an idea of the first ones, and they
then reproduced them in here after.

Max Schmidt, Jr.

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Page 13. Metal engraving department. What

kind of plates were those?

Those are zincographs and electrotypes.

Wasn t Schmidt Lithograph a pioneer in the use

of zincographs in this country?

Well, might have been, might have been.

By your day, I suppose, everyone was doing it

though?

Yes. We did quite a little of it.

Did the men in this department do hand work?

Did they do hand correction?

Well, they did engraving, metal engraving.

This was done by hand?

Some of it, yes. And some of it was done by

acid, etching.

Who s this fellow in the center here? Do

you know him?

That s Mr. Arnold Iken.

The fellow in the center in the dark moustache

Here s page 14. Is this he too, at the right?

That s he again. That s the same department.

What are these?

These are all original plates.

In the cabinet?

Yes.

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What are all these pulleys up there for?
There are routing machines; they routed the
different work out.

Oh, yes. The pulleys are running them.
Page 15. The transfer department.
That s the lithograph end of it. These are
all lithograph stones.
What was transferring?

Transferring was taking the original and putting
it onto a bigger plate, or a bigger stone. They
pulled the impressions, then put them onto a
stone, and then pulled another impression off
of that.

They actually transferred an image onto the
stone?
Yes.

How was it etched onto it?
it was just etched on, period.
By acid?

Yes. There was the foreman, George Caldwell.
In the apron in the right foreground?
Yes.

Page 16.

Same thing [as page 15]. You see, there s one
of the originals, on stone. They take the

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impression. If they needed a big sheet and

had six impressions on there, they had to pull

six impressions, put that down on their [big]

stone six times.

So they d run it six up then, in the end?

Yes.

What is this in the foreground?

This was a hand press. Impressions were pulled

off of this hand press. If you wanted six, you

had to pull six impressions to put on the stone

Then the six were transferred to one stone.

One stone that was put on the press and printed

Page 17.

That is the same thing. This is the polishing

machi ne.

To the left.

Between each operation the work had to be

polished off, and the next job put on.

Each stone was polished then?

Yes.

These in the foreground were big, weren t they?

They were pretty big. They couldn t be lifted.

It took about six men to lift the things. We

had a portable table that carried them around.

What is this in the center right?

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That s a hand press.

With the stone on it?

Yes.

What is he doing?

Pulling impressions, I guess.

It s not a production press?

A proving press.

Page 18.

These are the marbles that we used to polish

the plates. That just moved around, and those

little lead balls just polished the thing off,

and cleaned it, and etched it, and we put it

on for the next job.

Aluminum plates?

Yes.

When did they come in?

They came in quite a while ago. I don t know.

Were they in use when you came into the plant?

Just about, yes.

They put the plate down flat in this box-like

apparatus and then they put these metal balls

on top?

Marbles .

And then how were they moved?

The tables shake. And then the marbles would

move around and polish it all off.

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Were they glass or metal?

Regular marbles.

How did they get them out of that tray then?

Oh, I don t know. They shoveled them out.

How often could an aluminum plate be used?

Oh, quite a long time. It doesn t wear out

at all .

They weren t used flat, were they?

They were curved on a cylinder; you could bend

them.

Here is page 19. Book bindery.

That s the cutting room. They cut the labels.

That is the foreman.

In the middle. What was his name?

Arthur Bray. Father William and son Arthur

worked in the same department.

What is this?

That s a cutting machine. These are the girls

that did the sorting.

Let s see, page 20. Book bindery, south side.

That s where they sorted labels; and wrapping.

From off the cutting room they d wrap them up

in thousands .

Is that another cutter in the background?

That was a press for padding things. They d

put it in there and it would press it down and

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it would glue them up, the sheets, then lift
the press off and slice them in pieces.
My, you had pretty girls in the plant.
Yes. This girl was one of the Traungs. A
daughter of Louie Traung s.
This girl in the foreground at the right?
Yes. That was the forelady.
To the left in the front. The Traung girl s
the one with the bow under her chin. Did she
continue to working for Schmidt Lithograph
after the Traungs set up their own company?
No, no. She didn t stay very long. They all
get ma-rried and then they quit.
Page 21 .

That s the job printing.
What sort of thing did they do?
They did letterheads and reprints.
What is a reprint?

A reprint is when they have the label and they
want the man s name on it, why we reprint it
in there.

You put it in a blank space on there?
Yes.

If you get the wrong number of ounces and
you black it out, is that reprinting too?

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Yes, you can call it reprinting.

Page 22, carton department. Is this carton

stock?

This is cardboard. There is a die machine.

You see, all the waste is on the floor there.

They die-cut the different cartons out of the

sheet.

Are those Miehle presses that they are using

for it?

These are Miehles, yes.

They were run with those overhead pulleys?

No, that was just because you had one motor

here and transferred it down on the floor.

Both of them were run off one shaft?

Yes.

Page 23. Carton department.

Same thing.

What kinds of cartons did you make?

Raisin cartons, anything; candy cartons, any

old thing.

Could you handle heavy board?

Oh yes, 24 point. Mostly it was 15 point board

Page 24, carton department. Folding and

gluing .

That s the same thing.

Was there a lot of hand work involved?

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Quite a little, yes. You had to fold them and
run them through the machine.
This is a folding machine to the right?
That s one of them, yes. There s another one
here .

To the left. Did they have to be hand fed?
Well, they go down on a chute, like, and the
machine picks them up.
Page 25. The factory office.
The factory office. That s where I used to
hang out.

Is that your cousin Max, Junior?
Yes.

To the left.

Max, Junior; Mr. Rahsskopff; Oscar Heath; oh,
I don t know, one of the office boys.
From left to right that is, with the office boy
behind Oscar Heath. You were factory manager?
I was in the shipping office first. Then it
became factory office.
So that was your permanent office?
Yes. Oh, we moved around different times.
Page 26, the shipping office. Who is the
fellow in the derby?

That s Mr. Louis Hartmann. He was the boss of
the shipping department. Gertie Gilbert.

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Who s the fellow in the center?
I can t think now.
Page 27.

These are the roustabouts, shipping clerk s
staff. That s Mr. Hartmann.
In the derby again.
Yes. That was the watchman.
To the right.
Rice.

What s this machine?

That s a time clock. Everybody had to take
a card and put it in there and punch the time
clock. We had those all over the factory.
Page 28, offset press department.
Yes, those are the offset presses. They are
the same thing as the lithograph press only
they printed from the plate to a rubber
blanket to a paper.

Was this quite new at this time, in 1909?
Yes, fairly new; yes.
Who is this?
That s my father there.

With the moustache, standing over the press.
Mr. Rahsskopff.
With the little cap.

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What kind of a press was it?
A smal 1 Harri s .

Are there others behind it, there, like it?
There are a lot of them. There were two or
three down in there. Just take a picture, and
they all stop to have their picture taken.
What size was the press, do you remember?
This was only a small one, this was only about
28, 42, flatbed size. Then they went to 32,
46 and 44, 64, and so on.

Page 29. Three-color and two-color aluminum
presses. That was direct lithography, not
offset, is that right?

That was offset. Offset means that it goes
from a plate to a blanket to a sheet. They
call that offsetting.

I thought the aluminum presses were direct
1 ithography .

Some of them were, yes. But these were not.
These are offset?

Offset presses, yes. You see, they were quite
long, because the paper was fed in from here
and run all the way down.

Page 30, single-color aluminum presses. Were
they direct or offset?

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They were all offset. My father, with

the moustache here.

Oh, to the left. Mr. Rahsskopff and your

father. Page 31 .

Those are just the aluminum presses, as we

called them. But they are all lithograph

presses. And there were quite a few of them.

And these were offset too?

No, these were direct.

This is your father again, in the foreground?

Yes, and Mr. Louis Traung.

To the left of your father, in the foreground.

Yes.

Page 32, bronzing.

This is the bronzing machine. We had Chinese

men, Chinamen to feed the bronze.

It was kind of dirty work, the bronzing,
kind of dusty and dirty. They did nothing but
just take the excess dust of bronze off of the
sheet.

What did they do with it then?
Saved it.

Put it back and on the next?
Yes.

Page 33, two-color Miehle and single-color
Miehle.

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Letterpresses .

And you did label work on those?

Yes.

Is this one of the Traungs again, in the

foreground?

That s one of the Traungs. And George Hilde-

brand, the foreman.

In the apron?

Yes.

Which Traung is that?

Louie. Charlie didn t do anything in the

pressroom. He was in the transfer room.

Page 34, pressroom center aisle.

This is a big skylight here. We had all the

presses here.

On the two sides--! see. What s this in the

foreground?

That s a pile of paper that s automatically

fed; as the sheets go down in the press the

load goes up until it s empty.

That was one of the early feeders, wasn t It?

They still have them.

Were there many automatic feeders in use 1n

1909?

Oh quite a few, yes.

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Page 35, north side of general pressroom.
Those are printing presses.
Miehles?
Mostly, yes.

Page 36, general pressroom again.
That s the same, the pressroom.
Is this a printing press in the foreground?
Oh, let s see. Yes, I guess it was. See the
plates around down underneath there?
Oh yes.

Page 37, embossing department.
We embossed labels.
This is Mr. Rahsskopff again?
Mr. Rahsskopff, yes.
He must have been all over the plant.
He was all over, yes.
Page 38.
Same thing.
Embossing.

That s a hand platen embossing press. You see
the sheet was fed in there and then pressed
against the back of it, and then taken out
again.

And to the right?
Cyl inder presses .

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Were they too used for embossing?
Yes.

You used a die?

Yes, a die, and made a counter die of pre
pared mixture of litharge and glycerine. That
got hard enough so it would offset the impres
sion that was embossed. You know the embossing
was sunken and the counter die was the opposite
Did you make your own embossing dies in the
plant?
Oh, yes.

Page 39, electrical department.

*
That s my brother Max.

To the left.

Yes. And "Dirty-faced Mike" we called him.

To the right. What was his job?

He was one of the firemen, or whatever he was.

Page 40.

That was the boiler room.

Did the power to run all those presses come

from the boiler room?

Some of it, yes. A lot of it was electricity?

Did you have your own electrical plant?

No, we got it in from the outside.

I see. It was all direct current, then wasn t

it?

Max A. Schmidt.

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Indirect too. We had both.
Page 41, the machine shop. What was that
used for?

It was used for repair work and different things
that we had to do. There is Mr. Rahsskopff.
That s the foreman.

The sixth from the left is the foreman, in an
apron and jacket.
I can t think of his name now.
Page 42, electrotyping .
That s where we made the electrotypes.
It looks like dirty work.
It was .

How did they make them?
It was poured. It was a lead mixture.
Page 43.

Electrotyping, same thing.
Did you run much of your work from electro
types?

A lot of it. All the printing was done from
electrotypes. Of course the lithographing
was done from a lithograph plate.
Page 44.

Here s where we hung the paper for seasoning.
That s where the girls hung up the sheets.

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Box making and carpenter shop.

Were those boxes that you made commercially,

or for your own use?

The cartons were made for shipping and things

like that?

For your own use in shipping?

Yes.

You didn t, at that time, make cartons for

others?

Wooden cartons no. But lots of paper cartons

Page 46.

That was the cutting department. These are

all cutting machines in there.

Page 47, die cutting.

We used to have dies that we d put on top of

the sheet, and the press would come down and

cut the die and cut the labels, you see.

Little heart shapes, or anything.

That was hand work, wasn t it, making those

dies?

Yes.

Page 48.

The varnish machines .

Did you varnish all the labels?

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A lot of them, yes. Of course a lot of them
weren t varnished.

Were the varnishes formulated in the chemistry
lab too?

That was a regular varnish, prepared varnish,
made by the ink people. The sheet would come
in here and go around and go through a hot
box [to be dried] way down here, and then
we d gather it up down there.
This is a hot box, this wooden structure on
legs?

Yes, about a block long. Here s the varnish
here, see?

Right at the front. This front roller is
applying the varnish?

Yes. That sheet was there just to--I don t
know why, to keep the dust off, I guess.
In the foreground there.
That s Henry Hageman, the foreman.
In the foreground.

Page 49. Corrugated paper department.
We made our own corrugated.
That was a gluing process? Laminating?
Corrugating was taking two pieces of paper
and putting a wrinkle in between and pasting it
together. We used to make millions of corrugated
boxes .

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Was there automatic equipment?

Oh sure, great big long presses.

Is this just where the pieces were finished?

You can t see any of them in the picture?

No.

Page 50. What was that in the middle there?

That piece of equipment.

That s for die cutting.

Here s 51.

That was one of the corrugated machines.

This is what corrugated board was made on?

Yes. You take it out and press it down through

here .

It went in this front end, to the left, and

out the far end, to the right. This is a belt,

is it, an endless belt that is sagging under

it?

Yes. That s where the sheets were laid when

they were glued.

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Miscellaneous Photographs

Now I m going on to the loose pictures. This

one marked on the back "Wm. Hoi 1 i ngsworth"

I m going to number 51-A.

That s a varnish machine. You feed the sheet

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down underneath here and it would come up,
get varnished, and go on through a hot box.
This loose picture numbered 51-B: "Schmidt
Lithograph Co., Aug. 1914. 3600 Imp. per hour."
It says on the back that it came from "Leipsig
Li ndeman. "

You d lithograph the sheets and then run them
through this bronzing machine. They d come
out here, where the bronze would just stick on
the wet part of the sheet. It was one opera
tion. We had to bronze it while it was wet.
This is another 1914 photograph of the bronzing
machine. I ve numbered it 51-C. Who are
those men standing there?
That s Andy Hynes and the foreman.
Andy Hynes to the left. What are they bronzing
there, labels?

Yes, just putting the gold on.
This blue one must be of another bronzing
machine? (51-D)

Yes, bronzing machine, that s it.
This 51-E must have been an ad for a piece of
equi pment .

That s Mr. Max s signature [initials on back].
Oh, it is? "March 14, 1916." Was this a piece
of equipment that you were going to buy?

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I guess that s so.

What is it?

It s an offset press.

I see, and it was apparently to be paid. . .

Five per cent cash on acceptance.

Do you think they got it?

Well, I guess so.

These last pictures were laid into the backs

of /two albums, with a blue print of a United

bronzing machine and a folder for a Smyth

gluing and pasting machine. Now I ll go onto

the other loose photographs. This is number

52.

This is a Christmas party of some kind, a

dedication or something. I see myself in

here .

You re in the foreground, third from the right,

in shirt sleeves?

Yes. Arnold Iken, Andy Hynes.

Two over from you, to the left.

This is 52-A, a banquet.

A salesmen s banquet, a salesmen s convention.

There s Mr. Max, my dad, Doc Jaggard, Andy

George. Dick Schmidt.

Dick Schmidt is to the far left?

Yes.

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Next to him, second from left is ...

Mr. Schoof. Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Ed Lenz.

There s Mr. Miller. That s myself.

You re fourth from the right of those stand
ing?

Yes. That s my brother Carl.

Behind you and to the right.

There s Mr. Wuthmann.

Mr. Wuthmann is second from the right of those

seated?

Yes. Clarence Bessing, Ben Dixon.

This is picture number 52-B -- Max Schmidt.

Does that look like him?

Oh, you betcha.

With his cap off. He didn t mind having his

picture taken, I gather.

No, he didn t mind it.

Was he vain?

No , no .

Number 53.

That s the anniversary. I mean during the

war. These are the nurses.

Where was this?

This is German -- some hall in the city.
It s dated November 29, 1919, and says "In
honor of our soldiers and sailors."

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It might have been German House. These are
all employees.

Was it a party for those who returned?
Yes, something like that. We had a lot of
these parties. These are all nurses, all
factory girls [in the front row].
Did many of the people from Schmidt Litho
graph Company go into the war?
Oh yes, quite a few. I think we had forty or
fifty, I guess.

Did you have difficulty operating during the
First World War?

No, it was all right. It wasn t too bad.
Did you give them all their jobs back when
they returned?
You betcha!

Did any of the men in the family go into the
servi ce?
No, no.

Here s number 54.

That s another one of the foremen meetings.
Henry Hageman, Louie Miller. That s an old-
time one.

Fortieth Anniversary of the company, it says.
Yes. George Hildebrand. That s myself again

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You re right about in the center of the back

row there.

Ed Pierce, Joe Westphal , Mr. Schoof. Mr. Max.

StandingMr . Max in the center, to the left,

at the head of the table. Who s on the right?

I couldn t say.

Who s to the left of him?

That s my dad. My brother Max. . .

Second from the left, in the front row at the

table, your brother Max.

Arnold Iken, Andy Hynes, Tony Miller, George

Caldwell, Mr. Schoof, Mr. Olsen.

These were the executives of the company,

were they?

Mostly foremen and assistant foremen. Factory

building there.

Oh, that s a model of the factory building on

the table.

Yes. We went to a lot of trouble for the

banquets .

Here is 56. "Schmidt Lithograph Organization,

July 6, 1928." Max Schmidt right in the center,

is that right?

Yes. And there s Mrs. [Marie] Dufour.

To the right of him?

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Yes.

What was she?

She was a nurse.

In the factory?

Yes. Helen Barbour, Alice Burke. Oh, I

can t think of all their names. My brother

Carl. Vic Olsen. Here s all the bindery

girls. They had their own uniform.

Oh yes, in those kind of smocks in the front

row at the left there.

Yes.

And these were the office girls, in dresses

at the right?

Yes.

Here are some bindery girls, in smocks .further

to the right?

Yes, those are bindery girls. Mrs. Jennings,

she was an old-timer.

Is she this woman with the rather longish

skirt and the middy collar, in the first row,

to the middle right?

Yes. That s taken right in front of the

factory door.

They must have had to build a grandstand

there to get everybody in.

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They did. They put that up, and just
rotated right along. That s myself in here.
Oh, you re the furthest one to the left.
While they were taking the picture, I d run
over and get my picture over here.
Are you at the right too?
No.

You didn t run fast enough that day?
I didn t run fast enough.
Did you really do it sometimes?
Oh yes, it can be done, easy.
This is No. 57 .
That s an offset press.
This is 58, dated 1952.

This is a calendaring machine. We used to
take the paper and press it through and make
it shine.

Here s 58-B, same date.
That s the same thing.

Is this the delivery end we re looking at?
I think so. It looks like it. I think so.
Here s 59.

The paper came in cases like that, some of it,
We d ship out in cases like that.
And 60.

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That s an offset press, two-color.

These look like later pictures. No. 61 is

dated 1943.

That s a coating machine. That s where we

coated the paper. We d run it through and put

a coating on it, and then run it down here

and dry it and roll it up again.

Did you use much roll stock?

Oh yes , qui te a little.

What for?

That s the way it came. And that s the way

we delivered some of it. It was easier to

handle .

Some of it came in sheets though?

Oh yes .

What presses did you use to print on the roll

stock?

Oh, regular rotary presses.

Letterpress or offset?

Offset, I guess. You see, we delivered a lot

of these in rolls, to different companies.

We sent it back east and they d chop it up

themsel ves .

Oh, I see. Did you do much work for eastern

customers?

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Some, not too much.

Did the bulk of your work go into the western
food industry, could you say? Or the major
part?

A little of everything. All kinds of canned
foods .

Did can labels make up the most part of your
work, the largest part?

Well, quite a little of it. A lot of it was
cartons, you know, boxes.
Did you continue doing many wine labels?
We did a lot of wine labels, all the time.
This is Number 62.
That s the same thing.
As 61 . Number 63. ..
The same thing.

Oh yes, another print of 61. Number 64.
That s a calendaring machine too.
I guess 65 is the same thing, isn t it?
The same thing.

Sixty-six. There are a lot of prints of this,
I guess. And 67 is similar to 62.
Yes, they re all the same.

All calendaring. Sixty-eight and sixty-nine
are duplicates too. Here s a new one, 70.

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That s a two-color.
Harris?

Harris press , yes .
Who are the men there?

That s my brother Carl [striped suit]. I guess
that s the agent [on top].

Let me see then. From left to right is. . .
Max H. Schmidt, Morton Schmidt, Carl; I don t
know who he is, the salesman; and Mr. Diedrichs
Was that just when that Harris two-color was
installed do you think?

I don t know what year. A new two-color off
set, yes .

Number 71 is called "Second Lithographing
Pressroom. . .seed bag lithographing." Is
that right? Are those seed bags?
That is the seed bag division, yes. We made
a lot of seed bag cartons, paper.
What kind of presses were used there?
Those were the same, the lithograph presses.
Number 72 is labelled on the back "New two-
color Hall aluminum direct litho press, July
1920."

That s my writing. That s a new press.
What was it used for?

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Labels, cartons, anything.
Who were those fellows, the press crew?
Yes. There s "Fat" Anderson, the pressman.
To the left.

These are all his helpers. I ve got on
there "Direct Litho Press," that s not quite
right. It s. . .well, call it direct; we
called them offset.
It is offset, is it?
Yes.

Seventy-three. . .

That s the artists room. They all had their
own little pigeonholes.
Seventy-four.

That s Mr. Max s press. That s the hand press.
Oh, that s his original hand press!
Yes. He used to pull impressions on it.
I wondered if there were a picture of that in
here. That was his first one. How in the
world did it work!

It turned around. The stone was laid on in
here. It would come down with the impression,
and he would roll it off and pull his impression
off. It went back and forth on the table.
Is it still in existence?

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Yes. It s right in the front office now.
Here s 75, ink making department.
Yes. That s where we ground our own inks.
Seventy-six. What was that, do you think?
Mr. Max s birthday, maybe.
What s that over the door?

That s an elk s head that was put up there for
an ornament. This is the lobby of the down
stairs. That s Mr. Max s statue in there.
Seventy-seven must have been another celebration
That s one of his birthdays, yes.
Another of Max Schmidt s birthdays. Seventy-
eight is what?

That s while they were building the building,
I guess.

What bui Iding was it?

Across the street from the old building, 461
Second Street. All concrete.
The next block over?

The next block over towards the waterfront.
And picture number 79 is the same building, I
see. Number 80 says "Lithographic Pressroom."
Yes, that s the old lithographic pressroom.
In the old building?
Yes.

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Ei ghty-one.

Here s a poster, that s a regular poster. It
looks like he s jumping out at him. There was
one like that with Mr. Max. It was a joke.
Mr. Max must have been full of jokes.
Yes, he liked them.
Were you all full of jokes?
Oh, not too much.
Eight-two.

That was the poster room. These 24-sheets, we d
have to lay them on the floor to see them.
They usually put electric lights on them.
In 81 they were displayed on the wall. Here s
83.

That s the same thing.
Here s another view of it, 84.
These are all posters.

Eighty-five is similar. Eighty-six is what?
Corrugated rolls. That s where we stored our
rolls of prepared paper, and we d take them
down and cut them apart, and coat them, and
all that.

When do you think these pictures were taken?
Oh about, I don t know-- 40, 38, 35.
Eighty-seven.

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Same thing. They should have dates on these.
Eighty -eight.

Another [of the] poster room.
Was this a kind of projector to the right?
I don t know.

Eighty-nine is, I think, very interesting,
in the light of later history.
That s Louis Traung and Charlie Traung, the
two brothers. It was the first four-color
[offset] press. It was theirs.
Oh, it was their factory. Did you install a
four-color soon after?
About the same time.
This is 90, dated 1930.

That s Mr. Max s birthday, I guess. It s
his office.
And 91?

This is the lobby.
Ninety-two. . .
Factory, pressroom.
This is 93. What is that?
Oh, just the ink room, ink mill.
Ninety-four.

That s an old-timer. This is the old litho
graph plant down at 23 Main Street.
Oh, it is?

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Yes. We had a gallery around there and had
the job printing presses in here, with the
paper stock up in here.
This is 95. The same plant?
Yes.

The Main Street plant. Maybe all these are.
Ninety-six.

The same thing on the other side.
And 97.

The same thing.

There are some duplicates. Ninety-eight.
Same thing.

Ninety-nine, 100, 101, 102, 103.
They re all the same.

I have heard that the Traung brothers left
Schmidt Lithograph Company under something
of a cloud.

I don t think they left with any bad feeling
of any kind that I know of. It had been their
mind to get into [their own] business.
I think I heard somewhere that they had been
taking payoffs from an Ink company or something
of the sort.

That they might have done, yes, but. . .
They were clearly good friends of the Schmidt
Lithograph Company later, according to the

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1931 photograph [No. 89].
Yes, they were.

These are some miscellaneous pictures. I was
looking at them this morning with Mr. Died-
richs. This is number 148.
That s Max Schmidt [Jr.] .
Who was Mr. Stieffel, named on the back?
He was in charge of a lithograph shop back
east.

I see. It says Chicago.

I can t think of the name now. Mr. Stieffel
was the manager of some lithograph shop back
east, I guess.

I see. Did Schmidt Lithograph Company own it?
No, no. Just another company.

This is picture 149; Max Schmidt is in the center
Do you recognize the other two men?
Oh, gee. I guess they re both lithographers,
but I can t say who.

Here are a couple of old-timers; Number 151.
Mr. Schoof.
What did he do?

He was an estimator. He passed on prices and
things .
Was he the one who had been a schoolteacher?

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He was a professor at San Jose High at one
time .

How did he happen to give up teaching and
take to estimating?
I don t know, I couldn t say.
This is 152.

That s Arnold Iken. He was a metal engraving
foreman .

This is the one that I was interested in. It
says, "Here is a picture of the Lustour Plant
enlarged from Otto Schoening s snapshot." This
is picture 153. What was the Lustour Plant,
and why was everyone interested in it?
I don t know anything about it. Never heard
of it.

Apparently people in the company were supposed
to look at it, according to the memo attached.
This is number 154. It s dated 1953 too. Do
you know what that was?

Allen Chickering s golden wedding anniversary,
I guess. It doesn t mean anything.
Just a little memento made up for him by the
company?
Yes.
This is 154-B--in Honolulu.

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That s my brother Carl.

To the right.

Carl Schmidt. I don t know who the other

f el low is.

Here s 155. These are all apparently In

Honol ul u .

Yes. I imagine that s the varnish machine.

And 156.

That s Paul Mcllree. He was the manager of

our Honolulu plant.

To the right.

I can t think of who this other fellow is.

Here s 157.

That s the Honolulu plant, I guess.

Schmidt Lithograph Company in Honolulu?

Yes.

And 158.

That s Carl Schmidt and his wife and Richard

Schmidt*and his wife. She s dead.

Carl Schmidt is left, Richard Schmidt right,

and their wives are next to them. That was

taken in Hawaii, wasn t it?

I imagine so. All the leis and stuff. They

made quite a fuss about it.

Here s 159.

Richard Schmidt, Jr.

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That s the lithograph plant too.

The Honolulu Lithograph was different from

Schmidt Lithograph s plant in Honolulu?

No, it was the same thing. In the beginning

it was Honolulu Lithograph, then it turned to

Schmidt Lithograph.

Was this the same building that we saw back

here?

No, that s a two-story building. I guess

that was revised from this.

Here s 160. It looks like a beach scene.

That s a beach scene, Honolulu, Waikiki.

161 is. . .?

Same thing.

This is 162, it s dated 1937.

These are artists down there. I don t know

them.

This must be a whole series of pictures of

that company, 163, 164. Do you think this

was the building?

I was never in there. I never was down in

Honolulu while they had the company. I was

there before. When I got through school I went

to sea. I went to Honolulu three or four times

You went to sea before you went into this work?

Yes.

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What an interesting time you must have had?
It wasn t bad.
How old were you?
Twenty-one or two.

That s a good experience for a young man, isn t
it?

Yes. That was sort of a custom, after graduat
ing from Lick you had to go to sea. It was
just the thought.

You studied engineering at Lick, did you?
We called them machinists. It was a machine
shop. I graduated from the machine, the
mechanical end of it.

Here s 165. I guess these are all pictures of
that plant.

These are all Honolulu, yes.
No. 166. Is this a Harris?
I guess it is, a two-color Harris.
This is 170. Do you know who that is with
Mr. Max Schmidt?
That s Paul Mcllree again.
Number 1 71 .

That s Honolulu Lithograph.
This is 172.
Packing room, shipping.

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Number 173; this was the plant again.
What is this?

That s where they hang up the paper for
seasoning. See, it s all in the little racks.
Inside those metal enclosures.
Yes, and they blew air into them.
These are the fans, in the foreground?
Yes. It went right straight through.
Did they have to do that differently in Honolulu
than they did here?
No, we did it the same way.
Number 174 has on the back: "This press is
paid for." Whose signature is that?
Carl , C. R. Schmidt.

The same signature is on picture 175. "This
press not accepted yet."

That was during the consolidation, I guess.
They had to put prices on the machines.
Consolidation of Honolulu Lithograph and
Schmidt Lithograph?
Taking it over, yes.

Who had started Honolulu Lithograph Company?
How did the company happen to buy a plant
there?

I don t know if we were there first or riaht after
that. I couldn t say. We just wanted to be

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in the business.

Number 176.

That s the same thing, more presses.

No. 177 and 178.

These are all offset presses.

Are they all Harrises, do you think?

Yes.

No. 183.

Wrapping department.

No. 184. Is this the delivery end of a

press?

Yes. That would catch the sheets and pile

them up.

No. 185. What are those racks used for?

Oh, that s terrible. We wouldn t let them

have that that way. They had to be taken out

and al 1 squared up.

Are they printed sheets?

They are printed sheets.

186.

That s coming out of the varnish machine. They

had to catch the sheets as they came out. That s

what made them so ragged.

187.

Cutting and wrapping.

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188 is the pressroom again?

That s right.

189--this is 1937.

That s the paper as it came in. We used to

ship it down to Honolulu.

In boxes?

Crates .

Did you ship it from here?

Yes. We coated it and cut it and stacked it,

and sent it to Honolulu. Of course, they

bought some uncoated paper too, for regular

labels .

190.

That looks like the transfer room. That s

were they made the originals, then put them

on big sheets and put them on the press.

191 .

That s a bronzing machine.

192.

That s where the girls are squaring the sheets

You see they take them and square them; then

they put them right over on the cutter and

chop them up.

193.

That s the same.

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What s that machine?

That s likely a varnish machine.

194 is. . .?

That s a cutting machine. You see where they ve

got the labels?

Yes.

The girls would wrap them up over here.

195 is quite a group.

They are all Honolulu people except my

brother Carl and Dick and Paul Mcllree.

Let s see Paul Mcllree is on the left end?

Yes, then Carl Schmidt and Richard Schmidt.

Those are one, two, and three in the foreground,

on the left.

He was manager of the plant.

The man in the suit and a flowered shirt?

Yes.

Number 196 is dated 1955. These are the same

three? Carl Schmidt. . .

Ri chard

And Paul Mcllree.

Where did you get these pictures?

These are all from Mrs. Norris.

Oh, Stewart Norris.

Yes. I think her father had gathered them up,

or they d just accumulated over the years.

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Yes, they just accumulated. They are left

over from Dick Schmidt s estate, I guess.

There are a couple of more general questions

I had to ask you. Did you have typesetting

equipment?

We had a lot of type. We had a typesetter.

We set type.

By hand?

Hand operation, yes.

You didn t have any Linotypes?

No, we didn t.

When you had text matter to set. . .

We d have it set outside, in another company.

Who generally set type for you?

Oh, I don t know; I ve forgotten now.

Did you have good typesetters? I notice there

aren t any pictures of people setting type

in the albums, and I wondered about it.

There was one fellow named Jury; he was the

foreman of the type department. Richard Jury.

How many people were in the type department?

He only had a helper and himself. We didn t

do too much of it; a lot of it we sent out and

had done outside.

Then I wanted to ask about the company s

exhibit in the 1915 Exposition. What was that

exhibit?

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Lithograph work.

Did you have any equipment running at the

fair?

No, just reproductions of the work we had been

doing.

I think Mr. Diedrichs said that you also allowed

the public to come and look at the presses

running .

Oh yes, at times. We d take school children

at times too.

There s a big book that was given to the

Bancroft Library by the company. Signatures

of people who, I guess, visited the 1915

exhibition. Do you remember seeing that?

The guest book.

Was that at the exhibit at the Exposition?

Yes.

It was not kept in the plant?

We kept it after we were through with the

exhibition; we took it down to the plant.

That was a special book just for who visited.

What had been on the block where the second

building was built--the one completed in 1925?

That was Lachman [and] Jacobi wine company

that was in here, across the street. We tore

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down what was left of Lachman, Jacobi ; that
was just a brick building. I think Lachman,
Jacobi burned down during the fire.
How did you happen to build that big a build
ing at that time?

We needed it. We had the corrugated in there
[looking at a photograph of Plant No. 2].
On the first floor?

Yes. The paper stock was all in here.
On the second floor.

Then the seed bag was on the third floor. The
transfer room and the lithograph transfer
department were on the fourth floor.
Where i t was 1 ight?

Yes. We had good light all around the building.
Does it cover the whole block?
Yes. We now have a bridge across.
To the old building?
Yes.

When they merged the two companies recently,
how did they fit all the equipment in there?
You mean the Stecher-Traung-Schmidt?
Yes.

We had more room than we needed at times. They
[Stecher-Traung] disposed of a lot of their old
equipment and put the rest of it in this building

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Where did they put their big roll-fed press?
That s in this building on the ground floor.
This building had a big basement too.
This booklet that Mr. Diedrichs lent me, put
out when the new building was dedicated, looks
as if it had been got out by the employees.
They supervised it.
Where was it printed?
Printed out of the shop.
Who do you think set the type for it?
Oh, they maybe had it set up outside.
There must have been a lot of family feeling
among the people who worked for the company.
They were all quite friendly all the time.
We never had many rows.

Did Max Schmidt, Sr., create that atmosphere
originally?

Oh, maybe a little. I think it grew up with
the juniors .
Your generation?
My generation, yes.

Did any of you in your generation ever expect
to do anything but work at the Schmidt Litho
graph Company?

Most of them worked there all their lives. Of
course, some of them didn t go Into the

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company. My son never was in the business.

He wanted to be an architect and a contractor

and a builder, and that was it. We didn t

coax him either. There s too much of fathers

making their sons go Into their own business.

To me it isn t just right.

This memorandum of 1953 that we were looking

at before-- [attached to photograph number 153]

I was interested in some of the namesfiisted

on it]. Who was 0. Schoning?

Otto Schoning? He was the head of the seed

bag company when we bought it.

And he stayed with the company?

Yes.

What did he do?

He was one of the vice-presidents and managed

the seed bag division.
Who was G. Taylor?

George Taylor. He was head of estimating and

all that.

Who was Mort?

Mort Schmidt was Richard Schmidt s son.*

And what did he do.

He was secretary of the company.

And E. F. Wuthmann?

Richard Schmidt, Jr. s son.

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He married Dick Schmidt s sister, Mrs.
Wuthmann now. He was head of the corrugated.
L. Schmidt was Lorenz Schmidt?
That s my brother Carl s son. He was a sales
man .

And this is Verne Bonette, is it?
Verne Bonette, he was one of the office clerks.
J. E. Hamilton?

John Hamilton. He was in sales. And Harry
Anderson, he was in purchasing.
And B. Hamann?
He was in estimating.
P. Grain?

Percy Grain was then the head of the personnel
department .
B. D. Dixon?

Ben Dixon, he was one of the sales managers.
Guy Street.

He was in advertising, order department. Norman
Hamilton was my assistant. The shipping depart
ment was Carl Barthels.
He was head of the shipping department?
Yes. Ernie Wuthmann, Jr., he was in the art
department.
R. Duerson?

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Duerson, he was in selling; a salesman.
And Stewart Norris, what was he doing then?
He was under me.

I guess Dolly Ohls was somebody s secretary?
Yes. She was D1ck Schmidt s secretary.
I m very grateful to you for your patience in
going over all this. It certainly is kind of
you to give the time and the effort.

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Partial Index

233

Alaska Packers [Association], 18, 46
Amalgamated Lithographers Union, 25
Anderson, Ed ("Fat"), 118, 119, 135, 211
Anderson, Harry, 137, 230
Anderson, Henry, 13
Armstrong, Jack, 94-95

Bailey, Dick, 93, 112

Barbour, Helen, 206

Barnes, Jack, 112, 125, 131

Barthels , Carl , 230

Bass-Hueter Paint Company, 176

Bastain, George, 36, 100, 101

Beach, Clarence, 81, 106

Bergk, Billy, 69, 72. 73, 101, 102, 111

Bessing, Clarence, 203

Black, Bill 180

Blake, Moffitt and Towne, 176

"Block Department", 45-46, 48-50, 77, 78

Bolls, , 112

Bonnette, Verne, 137, 230

Bookey, Bill , 128

Borden, I[vy] L., 86, 176

Bouquet, Gus , 73

Bowen, Charlie,

Bowles, 119

187
182

Caldwell, George, 13, 14, 63, 64, 94, 96, 184, 103, 205

Cardozo, Herb, 130

Cardozo, May, 90, 91, 179, 180

Chickering, Allen, 217

Chickering, William H., 86, 89, 175-176

Crain, Percy, 137. 230

Crocker Bank, 6

Crocker Company, [see H. S. Crocker Company]

Crocker First National Bank, 156

Crowley, Joe, 106

Desmond, Josie, 76

Dickman, Joe, 93-94

Dickman-Jones Company, 6, 10, 36, 147-148

Diedrichs, Deborah, 80

Boyle

, Marti

n |

k

79

t

80

Bray,

Arthur

,

187

Bray,

William (

Bil

1

)

,

1

25,

Brune

, Bill,

1

34

Brune

, Fred,

90,

1

77,

1

79,

Brune

, Louis

*

90,

1

25

Burke

, Alice

,

206

234

Diedrichs, Herman, 20-139, 161-162, 210

Diedrichs, Mrs. Herman, 28-29, 30, 51-56, 134, 135, 162

Dixon, Ben D. , 137, 203, 230

Donahue mansion, 35

Doyle, Bill , 134, 135

Duerson, R., 138, 230-231

Dufour, Marie, 205-206

Durham, , 99

Earthquake of 1906, 27-33, 142-144, 166
Ellis, Dick, 16, 77
Emporium [department store] , 22
Evans, Arthur, 114

Farrell, Charlie, 16, 77, 79, 104-105
Freeze, Eddie, 75

Galloway Lithographing Company, 37-38, 116, 149, 150
Galvin, Jack, 43, 45, 91
Gamble, Frank 11, 59, 166-167
George, Andy, 202

Gilbert, , 80

Gilbert, Gertie, 190
Gillespie, Frank, 72

H. S. Crocker Company, 4-5, 6, 147-148

Hageman, Henry, 83, 84, 108, 199, 204

Haker, Edna, 180

Hami Iton, John E. , 230

Hamilton, Norman, 138, 230

Hamman, B. , 137 , 230

Hancock, Bob, 82, 106

Hand transferring, 63-68 and paaeim

Hart, Dan, 72, 74

Hart, George, 112

Hartman, Arty, 111, 112

Hartmann, Louis, 98, 190, 191

Heath, Oscar, 11, 12, 98, 167, 190

Heinrich, Dick, 13, 62-63, 93, 94, 111

Heppert, Harry, 87

Hueter, E. L. , 86, 89

Hildebrand, George, 48, 103, 104, 194, 204

Honolulu Lithograph Company, 158-159, 217-224

Honolulu plant, Schmidt Lithograph Company, see Honolulu

Lithograph Company
Honolulu Times-Star 159
Hughes, Clarence, 118
Hunt, Haywood, 2
Hynes, Andy, 36, 74, 86, 99, 100, 181, 201, 202, 205

235

Iken, Arnold, 92-93, 113, 136, 183, 202, 205, 217
International Club of Printing House Craftsmen, 2

Jackson, Scotty, 99

Jaggard, Belmont P. ("Doc"), 45, 91, 181, 202

James, [W. F.], 98

Jennings, Mrs. [E. W.] , 206

Jones, George, 10, 36, 58, 166

Jury, Richard, 225

Kaiser, Charlie, 75, 76
Klein, Frank, 14, 69

Labels , passim

Lachman and Jacobi , 21, 226-227

Lampe, Bill , 71 , 107

Lenz, Ed, 203

Lick School , 8, 220

Ligget and Meyers, 153, 155

Lindecker, Charlie, 113, 127

Lithography, direct, see Aluminum presses and passim

Lithography, offset, 34-35 and passim

Lithography, stone, 25, 31-32, 64-68, 150-152, and passim

Louderdale, , 111

Lustour Company, St. Louis, 136, 217
Lynch, Josie, 80

McCormick, Johnny, 75
McGinity, Edward D., 23
Mcllree, Paul, 159, 218, 220, 224
McMahon, John J., 45, 83, 84

Maloney, Mike, 117, 133
Martin, Charlie, 63, 94
Metzger, Adrian, 125
Millard, "Fat" 119
Miller, _ 93, 94
Miller Lithograph Company, 177
Miller, Louis, 177, 179, 203, 204
Miller, Tony, 205
Moffitt, James K. , 86, 176
Monel li , Paul , 43
Moreno, Joe, 77
Morrison, Albert, 70
Morrow, Bill , 12, 60
Moyles, Andy, 12
Mullens, Bill, 99
Munson, John, 109, 112, 131
Muriset, Fred, 112

Mutual Label and Lithograph Company, 5, 6, 35-36, 56-86, 147-
148, 165-174

236

Nelson, Andy, 78, 103, 109

Morris, Stewart, 132, 135, 138, 231

Norris, Mrs. Stewart (Barbara Schmidt), 4, 5, 51, 165, 224

Ny, Jules, 81

Ny, Paul , 17, 81 , 107

Oakland plant, Schmidt Lithograph Company, 30-34, 142
Ohls, Dolly, 139, 231

Olsen, Dr. , 122

Olsen, Vic, 36-37, 41 , 99, 110, 111, 114, 118, 122, 205, 206

Pack, Urvan, 117

Panama Pacific International Exposition, 50-51, 225-226

Pierce, Ed, 14, 15, 17, 22, 81, 97, 115, 119, 172, 205

Pierce, Ed, Jr. , 119

Plant No. 2, Schmidt Lithograph Company, 38-39, 108, 109,

116, 212, 227
Pohlmann, [Theodore?], 4

Possnecke, , 111

Powers, Dave~i 72

Presses, aluminum, 14, 15, 16, 25-26, 31, 34, 41, 69,

71-72, 73, 151, 152, 154, 170, 187, 192-193, 210
Presses, Campbell, 71, 72
Presses, Harris, 34, 35, 40, 42, 43, 50-51, 100, 113, 114,

116, 117, 118, 132, 133, 192, 210, 220, 222
Presses, Hoe, 73, 74
Presses, letterpress, 18, 50, 68, 152-154 and passim. See

also "Block Department"
Presses, Miehle, 16, 35, 46, 50, 68-69, 77, 78, 102, 103,

104, 153, 170, 189, 193-194, 195
Pringle, Adam, 42, 76

Rahsskopff, Carl, 7, 10, 11, 17, 58, 59, 89, 98, 99, 101,

105, 106, 126, 137, 141, 161, 165, 166, 167, 174, 177,
180, 181, 182, 190, 191, 193, 195, 197

Ramsey, Dave, 72

Reed, Bill, 91 , 127, 180

Reyes, Joe, 104, 112

Rice, 191

Rochester Lithograph Company, Rochester, N. Y., 165
Rolet, Charlie, 75, 76
Row, _, 92

St. Brendan s School, 21
St. Mary s Hospital , 21 , 143
Sano, 153

Schluter, Annie, 74, 76
Schmid, Bob, 134, 135

Schmidt, Bernhard H. (Ben), 7, 8, 28, 56, 87, 105, 112, 114,
124, 125-126, 133, 138, 141-231

237

Schmidt, Carl, 7, 90, 116, 128, 132, 133, 144, 145, 146,

177, 179, 203, 206, 210, 218, 221, 224, 230
Schmidt, Mrs. Carl , 218
Schmidt, Emile, 145
Schmidt, Frank, 101, 102, 111
Schmidt, Kurt, 3, 6-7, 160-161
Schmidt, Lorenz, 137, 177, 230

Schmidt, Mathilda, see Wuthmann, Mrs. Ernest F. Sr.
Schmidt, Max, 3, 4, 6, 7-8, 9, 10, 11, 28, 30, 38, 58, 86,

87, 88, 89, 90, 115, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 133, 136,

141, 143, 145, 146-147, 148, 160, 166, 175, 176, 177, 179,

180, 181, 182, 201, 202, 203, 205, 211, 212, 213, 214,

220, 228

Schmidt, Mrs. Max, 3, 7

Schmidt, Max A., 82, 105-106, 144, 145, 182, 196, 205
Schmidt, Max Jr. (Max H.), 1-19, 56, 59, 62, 87, 98, 113,

114, 116, 138, 144, 145, 160, 167, 182, 190, 210, 216
Schmidt, Morton, 116, 132-133, 139, 210, 229
Schmidt, Richard, 10, 11-12, 13, 15, 39, 58, 59, 63, 70, 73,

82, 87-88, 90, 99, 101, 102, 126, 127, 129, 130, 137,

141, 143, 166, 167, 170, 176, 177, 179, 181-182, 191,

193, 202, 205
Schmidt, Richard Jr. (Dick), 7, 8-9, 86-87, 90, 127-128,

145-146, 160, 176-177, 179, 180, 202, 218, 224, 225, 229,

230, 231
Schmidt, May Cardozo (Mrs. Richard Jr.), 218 see also

Cardozo, May
Schneider, Oscar, 5, 6
Schoning, Herbert, 37-38, 39, 116
Schoning, Otto, 37-38, 39, 116, 136, 229
Schoof, Gerhard, 89, 90, 133, 136, 177, 178-179, 203, 205,

216

Schubkagel , . 134
Shaw, John, 35
Siebert, Louis, 107-108
Simonsen, George, 70, 100, 111
Sisters of Mercy, 21
Sloss , [Louis , Jr. ?] , 10
Social Society, 121-123, 129, 131-132
Soderwal 1 , Axel , 94
Soderwal 1 , Gus , 5, 10, 94

Stecher Company, Rochester, N. Y., 164, 165
Stecher-Traung Corporation, 227-228
Stecher-Traung-Schmidt Corporation, 227-228

Stieffel , , 216

Street, Guy, T37-138, 230
Strikes, see Unions

Tanforan, Gussie, 11, 179
Taylor, George, 137, 229
Tofanelli , Charlie, 97

238

"Tower Time" 40

Traung, Charles, 14-15, 27, 36, 47-48, 70, 73, 104, 177-

178, 182, 194, 214, 215-216
Traung Label and Lithograph Company, 42-43
Traung, Louis, 14-15, 23, 26, 27, 30, 33, 36, 42, 43, 47,

70, 75, 77, 100-101, 102, 103, 131, 177-178, 182, 188,

193, 194, 214, 215-216
Troll, Charlie, 75

Unions, printing trades, 10, 23-25, 47-48, 123
Vanderveen, Chris, 72, 99

Walters, Eddie, 76

Ward, Bill, 69

Warren, Michael, Jr. (Mike), 62, 94, 95

Wehr, Henry, 10, 166, 182

Wempe Brothers, Oakland, 30, 142

Westphal, Joe, 106, 110-111, 125, 205

Willis, , 1 17

Winberg, George, 49, 102, 112

Wise, , 69

Wuthmann, Ernest F. Sr. , 87, 137, 138, 146, 203, 229-230
Wuthmann, Mrs. Ernest F. Sr. , 87, 145, 146, 230
Wuthmann, Ernest F. Jr., 138, 230

Zellerbach, Henry, 11, 12, 15

Zellerbach, Jake, 167

Zellerbach Paper Company, 14-15, 42

Max Schmidt s 1916 New Years Card
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38

THE NATIONAL LITHOGRAPHER

LITHOGRAPHIC LEADERS.

Biographical Sketches of Some of the Men Who Have
Made Lithographic History.

Thi is th< second of a <rief which will appear in thi publication.
MAX SCHMIDT.

The fact that Max Schmidt was born in Schoenbauni,
near Danzig, in Germany, on February 17, 1850, is im
portant only as a starting point. At the age of 22, with
out a word of English, he landed in San Francisco. That
is of the greatest importance. The day he first put foot on
California soil was the most significant in his life, for he
insists it was California that gave him his opportunity.

He was twenty-two, he had but a self-taught knowl
edge of English, and he did not even know the meaning
of the word lithography when he obtained a job as a trans
fer man for the Daily Stock Report, a San Prancisco pub
lication that was what its name indicated. There was just

MAX SCHMIDT

one circumstance that a seer might have said inclined him
to the career he was about to embark upon and follow for
the remainder of a long life. The boy could letter very
neatly. All the* seven years he had sailed the seas he
had kept a log, and its lettering the log is still in ex
istence is very neat and precise.

One week of gratuitous service, and at the end of the
second Max Schmidt received his first pay $3. The $3
a week did not interest him greatly. He had driven a
bakery wagon for twice that amount. At the end of two
months of bakery wagon driving he was still a bakery
wagon driver. But at the end of two months of work as
the Daily Stock Report s deliveryman he was beginning
to learn the rudiments of engraving. .

During his first year in San Francisco he worked at
several jobs. After that first berth with the bakery they
all had to do with printing, the making of labels and the
like. A combination of circumstances was shaping his
destiny. Definitely the sea was behind him now. Gone
the old wanderlust. He liked San Francisco. He liked
lithography. He liked the idea that he was learning a

trade. He liked to use his hands. And he liked to use
his wits, too.

Came the second big date in Max Schmidt s existence,
October 2, 1872. On that day he was let out of a job by
Korbel Bros., manufacturers of cigar boxes, labels and
brands. He had saved just $18 during nearly a year of
hard work. He had felt his way in English. He had mas
tered his tools and had built up a lot of fatih in himself.

Korbel Bros, didn t "fire" Max Schmidt. They let
him go, reluctantly, because they had no more work for
him to do. Next to landing in San Francisco, rather pur
poselessly, being let out of that job was the best thing that
ever happened to him.

Ten dollars of his savings went to pay the rent of a
ten by twelve room at 535 Clay Street. He hung out a
sign bearing the legend M. Schmidt & Co. and struck
out in business for himself. His was a one-man litho
graphing plant. That was fifty-four years ago and the
seed of the Schmidt Lithograph Company, a great busi
ness.

Up to this point we have seen Max Schmidt as a
wideawake young man looking for the main chance. Cali
fornia teemed with Max Schmidts lively young men
eager to get ahead. But with his embarkation in business
of his own he becomes an empire builder, cleaving to a
rock bottom a lithographer s stone.

The Sacramento River, flowing from the Sierras to
San Francisco Bay, overflowed with salmon. A fishing
industry was being built along its banks. The gold rush
was of the epic past, but mining was being carried on yet
by stock companies. The gold fever was still in the blood
and it was not a healthy condition. People were buying
mining stocks blindly, mining companies were being organ
ized on wild hope. Whether there was any gold in the
mines whether, indeed, there were any mines there was
demand for stock certificates neatly lithographed. Many
a promoter brought his schemes to the little establishment
of M. Schmidt & Co., to be spread on heavy paper.

Along with the mines were the wines. Here was a
genuine business, just getting under way when Max
Schmidt launched out for himself. He grew and ex
panded as the Germans and the Italians up in the hills
north of San Francisco harvested their grapes and pressed
out the juice and bottled it. They needed labels for a
product that was to take its place among the famous vin
tages of the world, to flourish until a legalistic drouth sent
the vintner into retirement. Schmidt became identified
with and necessary to a tremendous industry. Up in the
St. Helena Mountains were miles of tunnels and barrels
filled with the juice of the grape, aging against the day of
export. Famous names were to go forth to far tables of
connoisseurs Asti. Italian-American, Landsberger &
Co., Gundlach-Bundschu bottled life and effervescence,
bearing labels printed by M. Schmidt & Co.

Oue IKV diH-s inn make a hive single- tooled, and Max
Schmidt did not luiild tip single-handed the Schmidt Litho
graph ("unijuiny from a one-man concern to wliat it is to-
<lay. Always IK- has had the co-operation of loyal work
ers. RahsskoptT saved the house of Schmidt with his
varnishing machine. Jiiit more than to RahsskopfF, more
than to any other one man in. the organization, Max
Schmidt owes success to his brother Richard, who has lieen
a pillar in the house for fifty-one years. Richard Schmjdt
is a quiet sort, hut a tremendously capable man, and
for more than half a century every detail of the business
has l>een at his fingers end.

Without money he gave up the $60 wages due him
when he quit his ship on December 9, 1871 Max Schmidt
cast his lot in the land of opportunity, made the most of
things and grew with the West. He profited by change
of location, by the creative genius of others, and developed
considerable on his own hook. That he grew and pros
pered was but meet and natural, for by his hard work,
his grit and his faith he became an important cog in
the great wheel of progress.

Ruth Teller

Grew up in Portland, Oregon; came to the Bay Area

in 1932 and has lived here ever since.

Stanford, B. A., M. A. in English, further graduate

work in Western history.

Newspaper and magazine writer in San Francisco since

1943, writing on local history and economic and

business life of the Bay Area.

Book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle

since 1943.

As correspondent for national and western graphic

arts magazines for more than a decade, came to

know the printing community.

16 9457

U C BERKELEY LIBRARIES